SOCIETY,  MANNERS  AND  POLITICS 


UNITED  STATES : 


SERIES  OF  LETTERS  ON  NORTH  AMERICA. 


BY  MICHAEL  CHEVALIER. 


TRANSLATED     FROM     THE     THIRD     PARIS     EDITION, 


BOSTON : 
WEEKS,    JORDAN   AND    COMPANY. 

1839. 

- 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1839, 

BY  WEEKS,  JORDAN  &  Co. 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


T0TTLE,  DENNETT   AND    CHISHOLM'S 
POWEtt    PRESS, 

No.  17  School  Street,  Eoiton. 


NOTICE. 

M.    CHEVALIER   was    sent    to   this   country   in    1834, 
under   the   patronage   of    Thiers,  then   Minister   of    the 
Interior,  in  France,  to  inspect   our   public  works.      But 
attracted  by    the   novel   spectacle   presented   by  society 
in  the   United    States,    he   extended    the    time   of  his 
stay  and    the   sphere   of    his   observations  amongst   us, 
and  spent  two  years  in  visiting  nearly  all  parts  of  the 
Union,  and    studying   the    workings  of  our   social    and 
political  machinery.      His  letters  give  the  results  of  his 
observations,    the    impressions   made   on    his   mind,   his 
speculations   in    regard  to  the  future  destiny  of  our  in- 
stitutions, rather  than  a  detailed  narrative  of   facts  and 
events,  which,  however,  is   introduced   when   necessary 
for    illustration    or    proof.       The    translator    is    not,    of 
course,  to  be  considered  responsible  for  all  the  opinions 
and   statements  of  the    original ;    but  it  will    be  found, 
in  his   judgment,  that    M.  Chevalier    has    studied    with 
diligence  and  sagacity,  drawn  his  conclusions  with  cau- 
tion and  discrimination,  and  stated  his  views  in  a  clear, 
forcible,  and  interesting  manner.     He    seems  to  be  per- 
fectly free    from    any  narrowness  or  prejudice,  ready  to 
recognise  whatever  is  good  or  of  good  tendency,  wheth- 


803005 


iv  NOTicit. 

er  in  character,  manners,  modes  of  life,  political  and 
social  institutions,  habits,  or  opinions,  without  regard  to 
mere  personal  likes  and  dislikes ;  and  to  be  equally 
frank  in  condemning,  whenever  he  perceives,  in  our 
practices,  a  violation  of  our  own  principles,  or  of  those 
of  an  enlightened  philosophy.  He  tells  many  home 
truths  to  all  parties  and  classes.  Some  passages  of  the 
letters  and  many  of  the  notes,  which  have  no  particu- 
lar interest  in  this  country,  have  been  omitted.  M. 
Chevalier's  work  has  been  very  favourably  received  in 
his  own  country,  where  it  has  passed  through  several 
editions.  T.  G.  BRADFORD. 

Boston,  October,  1839. 


CONTENTS 


. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Course  of  our  Civilisation  over  the  World.— Oriental  Civilisation,  Euro- 
pean Civilisation. — Their  approaching  Contact. — The  Arabians  stand 
between  them.— Movement  of  European  Civilisation  towards  the  East. — 
Two  Routes  to  the  East.— The  Three  European  Types.— Latin  Europe, 
Teutonic  Europe,  Sclavonic  Europe. — Mixed  Character  of  France  and 
Austria. — The  part  to  be  played  by  France.  .  .  .  .  "  .  9 

LETTERS. 

I.  THE  RAILROAD  FHOM  LONDON  TO  PARIS. 

Analogy  between  certain  Political  and  Voltaic  Phenomena — France  and 
England. — In  what  we  should  imitate  the  English. — Railroads.— Ob- 
jects of  a  Journey  in  England. — The  Feudal  Castle  of  Heidelberg  and 
the  London  Brewery 19 

II.  LIVERPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER  RAILROAD. 

Impressions  of  the  Railroad. — Railroads  in  France. — Steam  Carriages 
will  not  interfere  with  Railroads. — Analogy  between  the  present  Con- 
dition of  France  and  the  State  of  England  after  the  Expulsion  of  the 
Stuarts. — Religion  in  Liverpool 29 

III.  WAR  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  UPON  THE  BANK. 
State  of  the  Question. — History  of  Banks  in  the  United  States. — Creation 

of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  in  1616  i  it  restored  order  in  the  finan- 
ces of  the  country.— Causes  of  the  Antipathy  of  the  Body  of  the  People 
against  Banks. — Benefits  which  all  Classes  have  derived  from  Banks. — 
Commercial  Crisis. •  ...  37 

IV.  THE  DEMOCRACY. — THE  BANK. 

Democratic  Movements  in  France. — Less  Influence  than  in  the  United 
States. — Errors  of  the  Local  Banks.— Their  Dividends.— Wisdom  of 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States — Political  Dangers  of  the  great  National 


2  CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Bank — Services  rendered  by  it.— The  President's  Accusations  against 
the  Bank. — The  Multitude  applauds.  .     •  ....      46 

V.  MOVEMENT  OF  PARTIES. — BANK  QUESTION. 

Industrial  Crisis.— Backstairs  Influence  in  Monarchies  and  Republics. — 
Party  Demonstrations. — Imperfection  of  the  Banking  System.— Excess 
of  Paper  Money.— Modification  of  the  Bank  Charter.— Good  Sense  of 
the  American  Democracy.— How  great  Questions  are  settled  in  the 
United  Slates 65 

VI.  PBOGBESS  OF  THE  STBUGGLE. — NEW  POWERS. 

Length  of  the  Debates  in  Congress.— The  Bank  must  withdraw.— Old  Dig- 
nities and  old  Politics.— New  Dignities  and  new  Politics. — New  Power 
of  Industry 69 

VII.  RAILROADS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Rage  of  the  Americans  for  Railroads.— Universal  Use  of  Railroads.— 
Glance  at  Railroads  in  the  United  States •  80 

VIII.  THE  BANKS. — PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION. 

Truce  between  the  Parties. — Possibility  of  a  Compromise.— The  Demo- 
cracy must  prevail.— The  Bond  of  Union  grows  weaker. — Probability  of 
the  Preservation  of  the  Union. — Changes  which  it  may  undergo. — The 
three  Sections,  North,  South,  and  West 87 

IX.  THE  FIRST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WOBLD. 

Pretensions  of  every  Nation  to  Superiority. — Pretensions  of  the  Ameri- 
cans.— The  Superiority  passes  from  People  to  People. — New  Peoples. — 
Russia  and  the  United  States. — English  Opinions  of  the  United  States. — 
The  Social  System  in  the  United  States  superior  in  respect  to  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Labouring  Classes 100 

X.  THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN. 

Course  of  Emigration  toward  the  West — Two  great  Columns  of  Emi- 
grants.— Character  of  each. — Share  of  Europe. — Virginian  Type. — 
Yankee  Type. — Yankee  Predominance  in  the  last  half  Century. — The 
Virginian  may  in  turn  get  the  upper  Hand. — Advantages  of  the  Contrast 
of  Character. — Two  Types  in  History. — Nations  of  three  Types.— Ex- 
cess of  Unity  in  France 109 

XI.  THE  CITY  OF  LOWELL. 

Losses  of  the  Jackson  Party. — Aspect  of  Lowell.— Rise  of  American 
Manufactures.— Founding  of  Lowell. — Lowell  Railroad. — Influence  of 
Manufactures  on  the  Happiness  and  Morality  of  the  People.  .  .  125 


I 

CONTENTS.  3 

r**. 

XII.  FACTORY  GIRLS  OF  LOWELL. 

Results  of  Machinery. — The  Locomotive  Engine. — Wages  in  Lowell. — 
Factory  Girls.— American  Manners. — Measures  of  the  Manufacturing 
Companies  to  preserve  Good  Morals  in  Lowell. — French  Manners.— Will 
Good  Morals  last  at  Lowell? — Moral  and  Political  Influence  of  the  Pub- 
lic Lands.  .  X 133 

XIII.  THE  BANK.— SLAVERY. 

Preparations  for  the  Elections.— Bank  Question.— Slavery  gives  the  Means 
of  saving  the  Bank.— States'  Rights  Party.— Concessions  of  the  North 
in  regard  to  Slavery 145 

XIV.  THE  ELECTIONS. 

The  Jackson  Party  repairing  its  Losses. — Decisive  Results  in  New  York. — 
New  Acts  of  Hostility  against  the  Bank. — Hatred  of  Monied  Men  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 157 

XV.  PITTSBUBG. 

French  Settlement  of  Pittsburg.— Aspect  of  Pittsburg.— Its  Manufactures. 
— Rise  and  Growth  of  Towns  in  the  United  States. — Triple  Symbol  of 
the  Church,  of  Schools  and  the  Press,  and  of  the  Bank.  .  .  .166 

XVI.  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Revolution  effected  by  the  General. — His  Military  Success. — His  Charac- 
ter.—His  bold  Tactics.— His  Embarrassments 170 

XVII.  PUBLIC  OPINION. 

Public  Opinion  in  America  very  different  from  Public  Opinion  in  Europe. — 
Government  of  the  Democracy. — The  Senate 185 

XVIII.  CINCINNATI. 

Situation  and  Aspect — Manufactories. — Slaughtering  of  Hogs. — Water 
Works. — General  Harrison. — Dependent  Condition  of  the  Pubkc  Officers.  1 90 

XIX.  CINCINNATI. 

Industry  of  the  Inhabitants. — Industrial  Feudalism. — Patronage. — Absence 
of  Idlers. — Rigourous  Supervision  kept  up  over  them  in  the  whole  Coun- 
try.— Why  the  Americans  do  not  please  certain  European  Travellers. — 
Gratitude  which  Posterity  will  feel  for  them 200 

XX.  WESTERN  STEAMBOATS. 

Influence  of  Means  of  Communication  on  Civilisation  and  Liberty. — State 
of  the  West  before  the  Introduction  of  Steamboats.— Introduction  of 
Steamboats. — Description. — Passengers. — Life  aboard. — Accidents  ;  lit- 
tle Attention  which  they  attract. — Real  Rulers  in  the  West. — Importance 
of  the  West.  - .  -  209 


4  CONTENTS. 

Page. 

XXI.  INTERCOMMUNICATION. 

Hydrographical,  Political,  and  Commercial  Divisions  of  the  Union. — Sys- 
tems of  Public  Works  resulting  therefrom. — Lines  extending  from  East 
to  West. — Erie  Canal,  Pennsylvania  Canal,  &c.— Communications  be- 
tween the  St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi  Basins.— Ohio  Canal  and  others. 
—  Improvements  in  the  Navigation  of  bolh  Rivers.— Communication 
along  the  Atlantic  Coast. — Coasting  Trade. — Lines  of  Railroads  and 
Steamboats. — Routes  radiating  from  the  Capitals. — Works  around  Coal 
Mines. — Miscellaneous  Works.— National  Road. — Character  of  the  Pub- 
lic Works  in  the  United  States. — American  Engineers. — The  Public 
Works  strengthen  the  Union. — Necessity  of  the  European  Governments 
executing  similar  Works ,  ;  .  227 

XXII.  LABOUR. 

French  Essays  in  planting  Colonies  in  America. — The  English  Colonial 
System. — American  Society  organised  for  Work.  -Haste. — Organisation 
of  Labour  peculiar  to  America. — Organisation  proper  for  France. — Can- 
ada.—Algiers 276 

XXIII.  MONEY. 

Money  among  the  English  and  Americans. — System  of  Honour. — Its  pre- 
sent Impracticability  in  France. — Pay  for  Public  Services. — Gratuitous 
Services  in  France. — Condition  of  Public  Functionaries  in  the  United 
States. — Influence  of  the  Progress  of  Manufactures  on  the  Pay  of  Public 
Officers. — No  Marriages  for  Money  in  the  United  States. — No  Misers.  292 

XXIV.  SPECULATIONS. 

Speculation  in  Land,  in  Railroads,  and  in  Banks. — Speculation  necessary  to 
the  Americans. — Unsettled  Condition  of  every  thing  in  the  United  States. 
Trades'  Unions. — Inconveniencies  of  the  Excess  of  the  Innovating  Power.  305 

XXV.  BEDFOBD  SPRINGS. 

Exclusiveness.— Religious  Festivals  formerly  Democratic  Festivals. — Po- 
litical Processions. — Camp  Meetings. — Women  in  Camp  Meetings;  and 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  Festivals  — Suppression  of  the  popular  Festivals 
in  Europe. — Influence  of  the  Philosophy  of  the  XVIIIth  century  on  the 
Imagination. — Struggle  between  the  Young,  Middle-Aged,  and  Old  in 
France. — Pleasures  of  the  Imagination  in  England  and  the  United  States.  315 

XXVI.  POWER  AND  LIBERTY. 

Situation  and  Character  of  Richmond. — Slavery. — Richmond  Flour. — In- 
spection Laws. — American  Liberty  is  Liberty  of  Industry  and  Locomo- 
tion— Few  Restrictions  upon  the  Interior  Trade. — Old'  Restrictions 
upon  French  Commerce. — Decline  of  the  Foreign  Commerce  of  France. 
Twofold  Authority  in  the  United  States.— Ancient  Authority,  Caesar. — 
Duties  imposed  by  Self-Government. — The  Authority  of  Caesar  could  be 


CONTENTS. 


destroyed  in  the  United  States,  but  not  in  Europe.—  New  Authority  by 
the  side  of  Caesar.  —  Canal,  School,  and  Bank  Commissioners;  their 
Powers.  —  How  Industry  may  flourish  in  Europe  by  the  side  of  Caesar.  — 
Of  American  Liberty.  —  The  Liberty  of  the  Yankee  would  be  intolerable 
to  a  Frenchman.  —  Liberty  of  the  Virginian  more  like  our  own.  —  Mix- 
ture of  the  two  Liberties  ........  .  ,  .  325 

XXVII.  PROGRESS  OF  SOCIETY. 

Universal  Appearance  of  Comfort  in  the  American  Population.  —  Effect 
upon  the  Condition  of  Women.  —  State  of  the  Blacks  in  the  United  States. 

—  Diminution  of  Taxes  considered  as  a  Measure  of  Relief  for  the  poorer 
Classes.  —  The   encouragement  of  Industry  a  more   effectual    Relief.  — 
American  Prosperity  the  Fruit  of  Labour.  —  Means  of  giving  Activity  to 
Industry  in    France.  —  1.   Industrial  Education.  —  2.   The   bad   State  of 
Credit  in   France  paralyses  the  Spirit  of  Enterprise.  —  Banking  Institu- 
tions suited  to  France.—  3.  Credit  must  be  made  accessible  to  the  Culti- 
vator. —  Saving  effected  by  an  improved  System  of  Credit.  —  4.  Means 
of  Internal  Communication  —  Influence  of  a  Credit  System  on  the  Means 
of  Communication.  —  Diminution  of  Price  caused  by  Facility  of  Carriage. 
5.  Legislative  Reforms.  —  The  Civil  Code  too  closely  modelled   on  the 
Roman  Law  ;  its  Defects  in  regard  to  Industry.  —  The  Laws  in  the  Uni- 
ted States.—  Jury  Trials  in  Civil  Causes  .......   341 

XXVIII.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

Moral  Obstacles  to  the  Emancipation  of  the  Blacks  in  the  United  States  . 

—  Exclusive  Spirit  of  the  English  Race.  —  The  Yankees  are  new  Jews. 

—  The  Difficulty  in  the  Way  of  the  Emancipation  of  the  Labouring  Class 
in  Europe  also  of  a  Moral  Kind.  —  Insufficiency  of  Philanthropy  and  Phil- 
osophy. —  Necessity   of   Religion.  —  Inaction   of  the  Religious   Author- 
ity in  Europe.—  Religion  has  effected  the  Elevation  of  the  lower  Classes 
in  the  United  States.  —  Influence  of  Political  Institutions  on  the  Social 
Re/orm.  —  Connection  between  the  Religion  and  the  Political  Condition 
of  Nations.  —  Protestantism  is  Republican  ;   Catholicism   Monarchical. 

—  The  Growth  of  Liberty  depends  on  the  Development  of  Local  and  Mu  - 
nicipal  Institutions.  —  The  Spirit  of  Association  and  the  Spirit  of  Divi- 
sion. —  The  Principles  of  Unity  and  Association  must  prevail  in  France.  360 

XXIX.  THE  EMPIRE  STATE. 

Tendency  to  Centralisation  in  the  State  of  New  York  ;  in  the  School  Sys- 
tem; in  the  Banking-System  ;  in  the  System  of  Public  Works.  —  Results 
of  Public  Works.  —  Charters  of  Canal  and  Railroad  Companies.  —  Influ- 
ence of  the  Example  of  New  York.  —  Modern  Nations  cannot  dispense 
with  the  Action  of  Authority.  —  Religion  cannot  fully  take  the   place 
of  Political    Authority.  —  Authority    must    change    its    Attributes.  — 
Banks,  Means  of  Communication,  and  Schools  are  the  Instruments  of 
Government,  which  must,  in  part,  take  the  Place  of  the  Ancient  Attri- 
butes of  Authority.—  Inviolability  of  the  Individual.  —  Favourable  Dispo- 
sition of  the  Public  Mind  .........        370 

1 


6  CONTENTS. 

P.J.. 

XXX.  SYMPTOMS  or    A    REVOLUTION- 

Riots  and  Outrages  Committed. — Decrease  of  Respect  for  the  Laws. — 
Wrongs  of  Popular  Justice. — Havoc  committed  in  Baltimore — Neglect 
of  great  Principles.— Diminution  of  Civil  Courage.— Dependent  State  of 
the  Press. — Want  of  restraining  Power. — Industrial  Superiority  and 
Political  Inferiority  of  the  present  Generation  in  the  United  States. — 
Probable  Issue  of  the  Crisis. 385 

XXXI.  THE   MIDDLE  CLASSES. 

Elements  of  French  Society — Remnants  of  the  Aristocracy.— Active  Por- 
tion of  the  Middle  Class  ;  Idle  Portion.— Labourers  and  Peasants. — Ele- 
ments of  American  Society. — Middle  Class  and  Democracy. — Difference 
between  the  North  and  the  South. — Disappearance  of  an  Idle  Class  in 
America. — The  Idle  Part  of  the  Middle  Class  must  disappear  in  Europe. 
— There  is  no  Reason  for  its  Existence. — It  has  no  Office. — Advantages 
resulting  from  its  being  merged  in  the  Active  Portion  of  the  Class.  .  396 

XXXII.  ARISTOCRACY. 

Authority  is  yet  to  organise  itself  in  the  United  States.— Authority  is 
founded  upon  Centralisation  and  Distinction  of  Ranks. — Present  Charac- 
ter of  Authority  in  America. — Representative  Government,  become  the 
Government  of  the  Majority,  tends  to  Tyranny. — Difference  between  the 
South  and  the  North. — Aristocracy  of  Birth;  Aristocracy  of  Talents — 
Both  co-existed  in  Ancient  Society. — Forms  of  Aristocracy  among  the 
Romans  and  the  Greeks.— Vigourous  Organisation  of  the  Feudal  Aris- 
tocracy.— Violent  Reaction  against  the  Nobility. — Christianity  has  con- 
tributed to  this  Reaction. — The  Feudal  System  fixed  the  Barbarians. — 
Primogeniture  in  the  English  Commons. — Advantages  of  a  Hereditary 
Aristocracy. — Growth  of  the  Sentiment  of  Family. — Necessity  of  ba- 
lancing the  Innovating  and  the  Conservative  Elements  of  Society. — How 
•Stability  has  been  secured  without  the  Hereditary  Principle. — Difficulty 
ia  the  Way  of  the  immediate  Abolition  of  the  Hereditary  Aristocracy  in 
Europe. — The  absolute  Hereditary  Principle  has  been  irretrievably  weak- 
ened.— Hereditary  Transmission  of  Office. — Where  can  the  Elements 
of  an  Aristocracy  in  France  he  found  ? — How  can  an  Aristocracy  be 
established  in  the  United  States? — Germs  of  Aristocracy  in  the  South. 
— Dangers  of  American  Society. 405 

XXXIII.  DEMOCRACY. 

Burden  of  the  Past  on  the  old  Societies. — Difficulty  of  Reforms  in  old 
Countries — Facility  of  Innovation  in  new  Countries. — Advantages  pos- 
sessed by  the  Anglo-Americans  for  making  Social  Experiments. — The 
American  Labourer  is  initiated.— Absence  of  the  Profanum  Vulgus  in 
the  United  States.— The  Labouring  Classes  in  the  United  States  are  su 
perior  to  those  of  other  Countries. — Defects  of  the  American  Democracy. 
—Analogy  to  the  Romans.— Superiority  of  the  Educated  Classes  in  Eu- 
rope.— The  respective  Merits,  present  and  future,  of  America  and  Europe.  422 


CONTENTS.  7 

NOTES  AT  THE  END  OF  THE  VOLUME. 

Page. 

1.  Use  of  Iron. — Manufacture  of  Iron  in  France  and  England. — Its  future 

use  in  Architecture, 441 

2.  Coal  mined  in  England,  France  and  Belgium, 442 

3.  Exports  of  Domestic  Produce  from  France,  England,  and  the  United  States,  443 

4.  Navigation. — Tonnage  of  the  Shipping  of   France,  England,   and  the 

United  States, 443 

5.  Nullification,  (omitted.) 

6.  The  Bank  of  the  United  States. — Comparison  with  the  Bank  of  France 

and  the  Bank  of  England. — Local  Banks. — Private  Bankers  and  Joint 
Stock  Banks  in  England. — Provincial  Banks  in  France,     .        .        .        444 

7.  Of  Failures  in  the  United  States, 449 

8.  The  Press  in  the  United  States  ; — compared  with  the  English  and  French 

Press, 452 

9.  Transfer  of  Funds  by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,          ...        453 

10.  Paper  Money  and  Metallic  Currency. — In  France  ;  in  the  United  States ; 

in  England, 453 

11.  The  Cherokees,  Creeks,  and  other  Indian  Tribes. — Indian  Policy  of  the 
Federal  Government,  (omitted.) 

12.  Public  Lands. — System  of  Survey  and  Sale. — Quantity  sold  and  for  sale, 
(omitted.) 

13.  Temperance  Societies,  (omitted.) 

14.  The  Cotton  Manufacture  in  France,  England,  and  the  United  States,         454 

15.  Production  and  Consumption  of  Cotton  throughout  the  World,          .        456 

16.  Degradation  of  the  People  of  Colour,  (omitted.) 

17.  Trial  of  the  Incendiaries  of  the  Ursuline  Coiivent 456 

18.  Anthracite  Coal,  (omitted.) 

19.  Conclusion  of  the  Question  of  the  Public  Deposits,  (omitted.) 

20.  Taxation  in  the  United  States,  458 

21.  Construction  and  Cost  of  Steamboats  in  the  West. — Number  of  Steam- 
boats in  the  United  States, 460 

22.  Summary  View  of  Public  Works  in  the  United  States,      .        .        .        462 

23.  Geological  Surveys, '.  466 


LETTERS  ON  NORTH  AMERICA. 


INTRODUCTION. 

1.  THAT  form  of  civilization  which  has  prevailed 
among  the  European  nations,  has  moved,  in  its  march 
over  the  globe,  from  east  to  west.  From  its  cradles  in 
the  depths  of  old  Asia  and  Upper  Egypt,  it  advanced, 
by  successive  stages,  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic, 
along  which  it  spread  itself  from  the  southern  point 
of  Spain  to  the  northern  extremity  of  the  British  Isles 
and  the  Scandinavian  peninsula.  It  seemed  to  have  here 
reached  its  goal  when  Christopher  Columbus  showed  it 
the  way  to  the  New  World.  At  each  stage  it  has  taken 
up  a  new  faith,  new  manners,  new  laws,  new  customs, 
a  different  language,  dress,  and  food,  different  modes  of 
life,  public  and  private.  The  great  questions  touching  the 
relation  of  man  to  God,  to  his  fellows,  and  to  the  universe, 
and  domestic,  social,  and  political  order,  which  had  all 
been  solved  at  the  beginning  of  the  halt,  were,  after  a 
while,  brought  again  into  discussion,  and  then  civilization, 
starting  again  on  her  march,  has  moved  onward  toward 
the  west,  to  give  them  a  new  solution. 

This  stream,  setting  from  the  east  toward  the  west,  is 
formed  by  the  junction  of  two  others  flowing  from  the 
two  great  Bible  races  of  Japhet  and  Shem  ;  which,  coming 
from  the  north  and  the  south,  meet  and  mingle  together, 
and  are  replenished  from  their  respective  sources,  during 
2 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

each  period  of  our  civilization,  through  all  the  episodes, 
which  obstruct  and  chequer  this  majestic  pilgrimage.  By 
turns,  each  of  these  forces,  whose  combined  action  con- 
stitutes the  motive  power  that  carries  mankind  forward 
in  its  course,  has  been  overborne  by  the  other.  Thence 
it  is,  that  our  civilization,  instead  of  advancing  in  a  straight 
line  from  east  to  west,  has  swerved  in  its  march,  either 
from  the  north  toward  the  south,  or  from  the  south  toward 
the  north,  taking  a  winding  and  devious  course,  and 
gathering  up,  by  turns,  purer  drops  from  the  blood  of 
Shem  or  of  Japhet.  There  has  been,  however,  this 
difference  between  the  North  and  the  South ;  that  the 
South  has  most  often  acted  upon  the  North  by  sending 
to  it  the  germs  of  civilization,  without  overrunning  it 
with  a  new  race ;  while  the  North  has  awakened  the 
slumbering  civilization  of  the  South  by  pouring  over  it 
swarms  of  hardy  barbarians,  audax  Japeti  genus.  Thus 
is  fulfilled  the  great  prophecy  concerning  Japhet,  that 
"he  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem." 

2.  Independent  of  our  civilization  and  distinct  from 
it,  there  is  another  in  the  furthest  East,  whose  centre  is 
China,  and  whose  outposts  are  Japan,  and  which  embraces 
its  hundreds  of  millions  of  men.  It  moves  in  a  direction 
contrary  to  our  own,  from  west  to  east,  and  its  locomotive 
powers  are  slight ;  we  might  compare  the  respective 
speed  of  these  two  civilizations  to  the  two  great  revolu- 
tions of  the  globe,  the  annual  revolution  in  its  orbit,  and 
that  which  gives  rise  to  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes. 
This  oriental  civilization,  like  that  of  the  west,  has 
repeatedly  regenerated  itself  by  a  new  mixture  of  the 
man  of  the  North  with  the  man  of  the  South.  The 
race  of  Japhet,  which  gave  us  our  Barbarians,  and,  before 
the  Barbarians,  had  given  us  the  Pelasgians,  Scythians, 
Celts,  and  Thracians,  and  has  since  given  us  the  Turks 
and  Sclavonians,  has  also  furnished  the  East  with  its 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

Mongols  and  Manchoos.  The  family  of  Gengis  Khan, 
which  conquered  the  East,  also  pushed  its  victorious 
hordes,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  Rhine. 

The  Eastern  civilization,  less  active  and  less  easily  set 
in  motion  than  the  Western,  probably  because  it  has  not 
enough  of  the  blood  of  Shem,  and  has  too  much  of  that 
of  the  inferior  races,  has  not  risen  to  the  same  degree  of 
improvement  with  its  sister.  But  we  must  do  it  the 
justice  to  confess,  that  to  it  belongs  the  honor  of  several 
capital  inventions  and  discoveries,  such  as  the  mariners' 
compass,  printing,  and  gun-powder,  on  which  we  pride 
ourselves ;  and  we  must  moreover  acknowledge  that  it 
has  solved  the  problem,  to  keep  under  one  law,  for  an 
indefinite  number  of  ages,  a  population  greater  than  that 
of  all  Europe.  The  Roman  empire,  whose  population 
was  less  than  that  of  China,  stood  whole  only  three  hun- 
dred years.  The  spiritual  authority  of  the  Pope  extended 
over  less  territory  than  that  of  the  Roman  empire,  and 
was  absolutely  acknowledged  only  from  Charlemagne  to 
Luther. 

3.  The  two  civilizations,  thus  gathered  together  at 
the  two  extremities  of  the  old  continent,  and  turning  their 
backs  upon  each  other,  were  separated  by  an  immense 
space .  before  the  western  had  fixed  itself  in  America ; 
now,  more  than  half  the  intervening  distance  is  passed  ; 
Mexico  and  South  America  are  covered  with  offsets  from 
the  latter,  on  the  side  which  looks  toward  Asia,  as  well 
as  on  that  which  fronts  us  :  the  United  States  cannot 
long  delay  to  extend  themselves  from  sea  to  sea ;  the 
Islands  of  the  South  Sea  are  beginning  to  be  peopled  by 
Europeans.  From  this  point  of  view,  it  is  clear  that 
America,  placed  between  the  two  civilizations,  is  reserved 
for  high  destinies,  and  that  the  progress  of  population  in 
the  New  World  is  a  matter  of  the  deepest  interest  to  the 
whole  human  race. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 


The  connecting  of  the  two  civilizations  is  certainly 
the  broadest  subject  that  can  occupy  the  human  mind  ; 
it  is,  in  the  eyes  of  the  friend  of  man,  an  event  of  all 
others  most  big  with  hope.  It  embraces,  politically,  the 
association  of  all  peoples,  the  balance  of  the  world,  of 
which  the  balance  of  Europe  is  only  a  part ;  in  religion, 
the  whole  law  of  the  human  family,  the  true  Catholicism: 
morally,  the  most  harmonious  reciprocal  action  of  the  two 
opposite  natures,  which  divide  each  race,  each  sex,  each 
people,  and  each  family,  and  which  are  typified  in  the 
Bible  by  Cain  and  Abel ;  intellectually,  the  complete 
encyclopaedia  and  the  universal  language  ;  industrially,  a 
definite  plan  for  developing  the  resources  of  the  globe. 
In  our  time  this  question  is  no  longer  merely  speculative  ; 
it  is  now  something  more  than  merely  food  for  the  dreams 
of  philosophers ;  it  should  be  the  subject  of  the  medita- 
tions of  statesmen. 

Since  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  merchants,  who  are 
the  pioneers  of  state  policy,  have  striven  with  a  con- 
stantly increasing  ardor,  to  open  relations  with  China, 
because  they  have  felt  the  importance  of  a  regular  system 
of  exchanges  between  Europe  and  a  mass  of  two  hundred 
million  of  producers  and  consumers.  The  emancipation 
of  North  America,  and  quite  lately  the  abolition  of  the 
English  East  India  Company's  monopoly,  have  given  to 
the  efforts  of  commerce  an  irresistible  force ;  before  this 
power,  the  laws  which  close  up  the  celestial  empire  are 
nothing.  China  is  encircled,  on  the  south,  by  the  English 
and  their  tributaries ;  on  the  north,  by  the  Cossacks,  the 
van-guard  of  Russia ;  British  and  American  fleets  prowl 
along  her  coasts ;  the  sleepy  Spaniards  of  Mexico  and 
the  Philippines  think  of  the  days  of  the  galleons,  and 
keep  their  half-opened  eyes  fixed  upon  her.  The  human 
race  has  just  come  into  possession  of  new  means  of 
communication,  which  shorten  distance  in  an  unexpected 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

degree.  The  two  civilizations  will  soon  reach  each  other 
and  mingle  together ;  it  will  be  the  greatest  event  in  the 
history  of  man. 

4.  Before  the  art  of  navigation  was  brought  to  per- 
fection, before  Christopher  Columbus  and  Vasco  da  Gama, 
Europe  had  had  communications  with  China  through  the 
medium   of    the   Arabs,    independently  of  the   cavarans 
which  traversed  Central  Asia.      The  Arabs,   conquerors 
and     missionaries    placed     between    the    two    civiliza- 
tions, had  spread  themselves  by  turns  toward  the   East 
and  the  West.      That    people,  so    active  by  starts,  has 
been    to    the    East    the    messenger    of   the    West,    and 
to  the  West,  the  courier  and  factor  of  the  East.     Unhap- 
pily since  the  Western  civilization  has  shone  with  the 
greatest  brilliancy  in  Europe,  Arabia  has  flung  out  but 
feeble  gleams  of  light ;    since    Providence  has  filled  us 
with  a  devouring  activity,  the  Arabians  are  fallen   into 
a  deep  lethargy ;  on  that  side,  therefore,  the  intercourse, 
which  was  never  complete  nor  speedy,  has  almost  ceased. 
But  if,  as  some  suppose,  the  Arab  race  is  about  to  rouse 
itself  from  its  long  stupor,  at  the  voice  and  by  the  aid  of 
Europe,  the  latter  will  then  have  a  powerful  ally  in  its 
efforts  to  seize  and  hold  Asia,  or  to  transmit  to  her  the 
means  of  working  out.  her  own  restoration,  and  this  illus- 
trious  race  will  thus  contribute  essentially  to  the  mar- 
riage of  the  two  civilizations. 

5.  Our  civilization,  in  its  march  westward,  has  some- 
times turned  back  towards  the  East ;  thus  it  has  had  its 
Argonauts,  its  Agamemnons,  and  its  Alexanders,  and  more 
lately  its  heroes  of  the  crusades  and  its  Portuguese  cap- 
tains.   These  partial  movements  were  but  temporary  inter- 
ruptions of   its  solemn  march   toward  the   West ;    they 
were    merely    countercurrents,    resembling    the    eddies 
which  always  exist  in  the  currents  of  rivers.     Until  our 
own  time,  Europe  has  founded   no  durable  and  important 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

establishment  in  Asia ;  in  proportion  as  our  civilization 
advanced  westwards,  the  countries  which  it  left  behind 
escaped  from  its  influence,  and  the  distance  between  it 
and  the  oriental  civilization,  became  greater.  Alexander 
is  the  only  person  of  whom  China  could  feel  any  fear, 
and  he  passed  away  like  the  lightning  flash.  The  Par- 
thians,  the  Saracens,  or  the  Turks,  were  the  impregnable 
bulwarks  of  eastern  Asia.  The  mission  of  Europe  was, 
above  all  things,  to  reach  and  settle  a  new  hemisphere. 

At  present,  the  incontestible  superiority  of  the  western 
nations  in  wealth,  in  mechanical  skill,  in  means  of  trans- 
portation, in  government,  in  the  art  of  war,  enables  them 
to  make  their  way  across  the  Old  World  toward  the  re- 
motest recesses  of  Asia.  The  nations  whom  we  are 
accustomed  to  call  oriental,  but  who  are  only  inhabitants 
of  the  Lesser  East,  have  ceased  to  be  formidable  adver- 
saries to  Europe ;  they  delivered  up  their  swords,  at 
Heliopolis,  Navarino,  and  Adrianople.  The  colonization 
of  America  is  now  at  length  completed  from  Hudson's 
Bay  to  Cape  Horn,  but  Europe  can  and  ought  to  move 
towards  the  East  as  well  as  towards  the  West ;  the 
isthmus  of  Suez  has  as  good  a  chance  as  the  isthmus  of 
Panama,  to  become  the  route  of  western  civilization  to 
the  Greater  East. 

6.  Our  European  civilization  has  a  twofold  source,  the 
Romans  and  the  Teutonic  nations.  Setting  aside  for  the 
present  Russia,  who  is  a  new  comer,  and  who  already, 
however,  equals  the  most  powerful  of  the  elder  states,  it 
is  subdivided  into  two  families,  each  of  which  is  marked 
by  its  strong  likeness  to  one  of  the  mother  nations,  which 
have  contributed  to  give  birth  to  both.  Thus  there  is  the 
Latin  Europe,  and  the  Teutonic  Europe ;  the  former 
comprises  the  south,  the  latter  the  people  of. the  north; 
the  former  is  Roman  Catholic,  the  latter  Protestant ;  the 
one  speaks  Teutonic  languages,  and  the  other,  idioms, 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

in  which  Latin  is  predominant.  These  two  branches,  Latin 
and  German,  re-appear  in  the  New  World  ;  South  Ameri- 
ca, like  southern  Europe,  is  Roman  Catholic  and  Latin ; 
North  America  belongs  to  the  Protestant  Anglo-Saxon 
population. 

In  the  great  enterprise  of  bringing  together  European 
and  Asiatic  civilization,  the  Teutonic  and  Latin  nations 
may  both  find  a  field  of  action ;  both  occupy  in  Europe 
and  America,  by  land  and  sea,  admirable  outposts  and  ex- 
cellent positions  round  that  imperturbable  Asia,  into  which 
it  is  their  object  to  force  their  way.  But,  during  the  last 
age,  the  superiority  which  formerly  belonged  to  the  Latin 
family,  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Teutonic  race, 
owing  partly  to  the  energy  of  England  in  the  Old  World, 
and  that  of  her  sons  in  the  New,  and  partly  to  the  loosen- 
ing of  the  old  religious  and  moral  ties  among  the  Latin 
nations.  The  Sclavonic  race,  which  has  lately  shown 
itself,  and  which  now  forms  a  third  group  of  nations  in 
Europe,  seems  ready  to  contest  with  the  Latin  race  even 
the  possession  of  the  second  rank  ;  it  is  only  the  Russians 
and  Anglo-Saxons  that  interest  themselves  about  Further 
Asia,  and  press  upon  its  frontiers  by  land  and  by  sea. 
The  people  of  the  Latin  stock  must  not,  however,  stand 
idle  in  the  coming  struggle,  or  the  case  will  go  against 
them  by  default ;  an  excellent  opportunity  is  now  offered 
to  regain  their  lost  rank. 

7.  In  our  three-headed  Europe,  Teutonic,  Latin,  and 
Sclavonic,  two  nations,  France  and  Austria,  present  them- 
selves under  less  distinct  features,  and  with  less  exclusive 
characters  than  the  others.  France  shares  in  the  Teutonic 
and  Latin  natures ;  in  religion,  she  is  Catholic  in  feeling, 
but  Protestant  out  of  caprice  ;  she  unites  the  nervous  un- 
derstanding of  the  Germans  with  the  elegant  taste  of  the 
southern  nations.  Austria,  by  the  education  and  origin  of 
the  people  of  her  different  states,  is  half  Sclavonic,  half 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

Teutonic,  and  she  is  connected  with  the  Latin  family  by 
her  religion.  France  and  Austria  are,  then,  the  natural 
mediums  of  communication,  the  one  between  the  Ger- 
mans and  Latins,  and  the  other  between  the  Germans  and 
Sclavonians ;  Austria  is  chiefly  Teutonic,  as  France  is 
essentially  Latin.  From  this  mixed  character  of  France 
and  Austria,  we  may  conclude,  that  whenever  the  balance 
of  Europe,  or  the  harmonious  combination  of  all  European 
nations  in  one  common  object,  shall  become  subjects  of 
discussion,  both  will  exercise  a  decisive  influence,  and 
their  hearty  co-operation  in  a  common  cause  will  make 
them  irresistible.  Austria  has  a  more  central  position  than 
France ;  she  has  a  greater  number  of  points  of  contact 
with  the  different  types  of  western  civilization ;  but 
France  combines  the  invaluable  advantages  of  a  more 
homogeneous  constitution,  and  a  more  flexible  tempera- 
ment ;  she  has  a  physiognomy  more  strongly  marked,  a 
mission  more  clearly  defined,  and  above  all,  she  has  more 
of  the  social  spirit.  She  is  at  the  head  of  the  Latin  group ; 
she  is  its  protectress. 

8.  In  the  events  which  seem  about  to  dawn  upon  us, 
France  may,  then,  take  a  most  important  share  ;  she  is  the 
depositary  of  the  destinies  of  all  the  Latin  nations  of  both 
continents.  She  alone  can  save  the  whole  family  from 
being  swallowed  up  by  a  double  flood  of  Sclavonians  and 
Germans.  To  her  it  belongs  to  rouse  them  from  the  leth- 
argy into  which  they  are  plunged  in  both  hemispheres,  to 
raise  them  to  the  level  of  other  nations,  and  to  enable  them 
again  to  take  a  stand  in  the  world  ;  she  also  is  called  upon, 
perhaps  more  than  any  other  power,  to  encourage  the  new 
spirit,  which  seems  to  be  re-animating  the  Arabians,  and 
through  them  to  shake  the  East.  .Thus  the  political  the- 
atre, seen  from  a  French  point  of  view,  shows,  in  a  distant 
back-ground,  the  meeting  of  the  Oriental  and  the  Western 
civilizations,  in  which  we  are  called  upon  to  act  as  medi- 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

ators,  and  in  the  fore-ground,  the  education,  by  France,  of 
all  the  Latin  nations,  and  of  many  of  the  Arab  tribes 
living  around  the  Mediterranean. 

There  may  be  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  time 
when  these  revolutions,  which  are  to  agitate  the  depths  of 
Asia,  will  take  place ;  I  am  one  of  those  who  think  it  not 
far  off.  I  can  easily  conceive,  also,  that  some  persons 
should  wish  to  lessen  the  circle  of  French  influence,  and 
confine  it  to  the  southern  countries  of  Europe ;  although 
to  me  France  seems  called  upon  to  exercise  a  benevolent 
and  wholesome  care  over  the  people  of  South  America, 
who  are  not  yet  fit  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  although 
the  old  traditions  of  the  crusades,  the  conquest  of  Algiers, 
and  the  recollection  of  the  expedition  into  Egypt,  seem  to 
promise  us  one  of  the  first  parts  in  the  drama  which  will 
be  acted  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 

As  for  the  European  nations  of  the  Latin  family,  no 
one,  I  suppose,  can  have  any  doubts  concerning  our 
supremacy  over  them,  or  concerning  our  duties,  both  to 
them  and  to  ourselves,  in  relation  to  them.  We  have  been 
notoriously  the  head  of  the  family  since  the  time  of  Louis 
XIV.,  and  we  can  neither  shrink  from  the  burdens,  nor 
from  the  privileges  of  our  situation.  Our  superiority  is 
acknowledged  by  all  its  members,  our  protection  has  been 
accepted  by  all,  whenever  it  has  been  offered  without 
selfish  views.  Happy  would  it  have  been  for  France,  if, 
content  with  this  high  prerogative,  her  princes,  and  above 
all  he  who  has  added  new  lustre  to  the  name  of  Emperor, 
had  not  been  obstinately  bent  on  the  unnatural  purpose  of 
extending  their  authority  over  the  members  of  the  Teu- 
tonic family ! 

9.     Since  the  weight  has  been  thrown  into  the  Saxon 

scale,  since  the   English  race  has  overborne  France  and 

Spain  in  Asia,  in  America,  and  in  Europe,  new  institutions, 

naw  rules  of  government,  new  ideas,  new  modes  of  action, 

3 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

in  social,  political,  and  individual  life,  have  sprung  up 
among  the  English,  and  more  especially  among  their  suc- 
cessors in  the  New  World  ;  everything  connected  with 
labor  and  the  condition  of  the  greater  number  of  working 
men,  has  been  carried  to  a  degree  of  perfection  before  un- 
heard of.  It  seems  as  if,  by  the  aid  of  these  improve- 
ments,' the  superiority  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  over  the  Latin 
family,  must  go  on  constantly  increasing.  The  French, 
of  all  the  Latin  nations,  are  most  favorably  placed,  and  the 
only  one  well  placed,  to  avail  themselves  of  these  improve- 
ments by  adapting  them  to  their  own  exigencies.  We 
are  full  of  energy ;  never  has  our  mind  been  more  fairly 
thrown  open ;  never  were  our  hearts  more  ready  to  throb 
for  noble  enterprises. 

But  we  must  set  ourselves  at  work  without  delay ;  we 
must  do  this,  setting  aside  all  considerations  of  general 
policy,  and  of  the  contact,  whether  more  or  less  remote, 
of  the  two  civilizations.  It  is  a  matter  of  the  last  neces- 
sity in  regard  to  ourselves,  even  supposing  that  we  have 
not  to  transmit  to  the  southern  nations  of  Europe,  of  whom 
we  are  the  eldest,  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Levant, 
those  improvements  which  their  situation  demands,  and 
which  they  are  ready  to  receive  at  our  hands  ;  our  own 
welfare,  t>ur  own  existence  is  at  stake.  How,  and  under 
what  form  shall  we  be  able  to  make  the  innovations  of  the 
English  race  our  own  ?  This  difficult  and  complicated 
question  has  been  the  chief  object  of  my  attention  during 
my  residence  in  the  New  World ;  I  do  not  claim  the  honor 
of  having  even  partially  solved  it.  But  I  shall  feel  satis- 
fied, if  the  thoughts  suggested  to  me  by  the  sight  of  an 
order  of  things  so  unlike  our  own,  falling  under  the  eyes 
of  one  more  far-sighted  than  myself,  shall  put  him  in  the 
way  of  its  solution. 


LONDON  AND  PARIS  RAILROAD.  19 


LETTER  I. 

RAILROAD  FROM  LONDON  TO   PARIS. 

LONDON,  Nov.  1,  1833. 

WHILE  railroads  are  talked  of  at  Paris,  they  are  made 
here.  That  from  London  to  Birmingham  is  already  be- 
gun ;  it  will  be  112  miles  in  length,  and  all  the  stock,  to 
the  amount  of  12,000,000  dollars,  has  been  taken  up  by 
subscription ;  this  road  will  be  continued  by  another  of 
nearly  the  same  length,  from  Birmingham  to  Liverpool, 
and  in  five  years  Liverpool  and  London  will  be  only  eight 
hours  apart.  Whilst  the  English  capitalists  are  executing 
these  great  undertakings,  the  Parisian  capitalists  look  on, 
but  do  not  stir  ;  they  do  not  even  form  projects.  Not  one 
of  them  seems  to  have  seriously  considered,  that  even  in 
the  present  state  of  things,  there  is  more  than  twice  the 
number  of  travellers  between  Paris  and  Versailles,  than 
between  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  although  the  railroad 
between  ,the  last  named  places  has  been  opened  three  years. 
In  London,  therefore,  they  count  little  upon  the  aid  of 
French  capitalists  in  the  construction  of  a  railroad  from 
that  city  to  Paris  ;  they  desire  it,  they  would  be  glad  to  be 
able  to  go  from  one  capital  to  the  other  in  fifteen  hours, 
and  at  trifling  expense  ;  all  classes  are  delighted  with  the 
idea  of  such  a  thing.  But  they  feel  that  such  a  work  is 
neither  expedient  nor  feasible,  without  the  joint  action  of 
both  nations ;  and  as  they  dare  not  hope  for  the  co-opera- 
tion of  France,  little  is  said  about  it  as  a  serious  affair. 

Among  all  the  acquisitions,  which,  since  the  end  of  the 
last  century,  have  enriched  the  domain  of  science,  none 
has  opened  a  wider  field  than  Volta's  discoveries  relative 
to  the  motion  of  electricity,  and  its  development  by  con- 


20  LETTER  I. 

tact.  The  phenomena  resulting  from  the  two  poles  of  the 
Voltaic  battery  offer  an  inexhaustible  mine  to  the  physical 
philosopher ;  there  is  no  fact  in  science  more  general  in  its 
nature,  for  if  any  two  bodies  whatsoever  touch  each  other, 
they  form  at  once,  by  their  mutual  action  and  reaction,  a 
Voltaic  pile  of  greater  or  less  energy.  This  physical  fact 
has  its  counterpart  in  the  moral  order  of  things ;  if  you 
bring  together  two  men  who  have  hitherto  been  separated 
from  each  other,  in  however  slight  a  degree  they  may 
have  any  striking  quality,  their  friction  will  certainly  pro- 
duce a  spark.  If  instead  of  two  men,  the  two  poles  of 
your  battery  are  two  nations,  the  result  is  greater  in  the 
proportion  of  a  nation  to  an  individual.  If  these  two  na- 
tions are  England  and  France,  that  is  to  say,  the  two  most 
enlightened  and  most  powerful  people  in  the  world,  this 
sort  of  Voltaic  phenomenon  then  acquires  a  prodigious  in- 
tensity ;  it  involves  nothing  less  than  the  safety  of  an  old 
or  the  creation  of  a  new  civilization. 

The  predominant  qualities,  good  or  bad,  of  France  and 
England,  may  be  arranged  in  a  series  of  parallels,  the  cor- 
responding terms  in  each  of  which  will  be  complements 
of  each  other.  England  is  pre-eminent  in  affairs,  and  the 
qualities  which  belong  to  them,  coolness,  economy,  pre- 
cision, method,  perseverance  ;  taste  and  genius  for  the  fine 
arts,  with  the  enthusiasm,  the  recklessness,  the  caprice, 
the  irregular  habits,  the  wastefulness,  at  least  in  time  and 
words,  which  characterise  the  artist,  have  fallen  to  the  lot 
of  France.  On  one  side,  is  reason,  cautious  and  sober,  but 
sure-footed,  good  sense,  creeping  along  the  ground ;  on 
the  other,  imagination  with  her  brilliant  audacity,  but  also 
with  her  ignorance  of  things  and  method,  her  starts  and 
trips.  Here,  an  admirable  energy  in  struggling  against 
nature  and  metamorphosing  the  physical  features  of  the 
globe ;  there,  an  unequalled  intellectual  activity,  and  the 
gift  of  warming  the  heart  of  mankind  with  its  fires.  In 


LONDON  AND  PARIS  RAILROAD.  21 

England,  treasures  of  industry  and  heaps  of  gold ;  in 
France,  treasures  of  thought,  wells  of  science,  torrents  of 
inspiration.  In  proud  Albion,  staid,  but  cheerless  manners, 
reserve  pushed  to  a  chilling  excess ;  in  our  fair  France, 
easiness  of  manners  carried  to  licentiousness,  the  old  Gaul- 
ish gaiety,  often  savoring  somewhat  of  the  camp,  a  some- 
thing of  the  free  and  easy  bordering  on  the  promiscuous 
(un  sans-fagon  expansif  qui  frise  la  promiscuite}.  On 
both  sides  a  large  dose  of  pride  ;  among  our  neighbors,  a 
calculating,  ambitious  pride ;  the  pride  of  the  statesman 
and  the  merchant,  which  feeds  only  on  power  and  wealth  ; 
which  for  the  country  desires  conquests,  vast  colonies,  all 
the  Gibraltars  and  St  Helenas,  eagle's  nests  by  which  all 
seas  and  all  shores  are  commanded ;  and  which  for  one- 
self pants  for  riches,  an  aristocratic  park,  a  seat  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  a  tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Amongst 
us,  a  vain-glorious  pride,  which  longs  for  the  unreal,  for 
ideal  pleasures ;  a  thirst  after  applause  for  self,  after  glory 
for  our  country  ;  a  pride,  which,  for  France,  would  be  sat- 
isfied with  the  admiration  of  the  world,  for  self,  with  cas- 
tles in  the  air,  a  ribband,  an  epaulet,  a  line  of  Beranger 
as  a  funeral  oration;  the  pride  of  the  actor  on  the  stage, 
of  the  knight  in  the  lists.  On  the  north  of  the  Channel, 
prevail  religion  and  positive  faith;  on  the  south,  scepticism, 
mingled  with  enthusiasm.  There  a  deep  sentiment  of 
order  and  respect  for  rank,  combined  with  a  haughty  feel- 
ing of  the  dignity  of  man  ;  here,  a  people  eager  for  equal- 
ity, excitable,  restless,  turbulent,  yet  docile,  often  even  to 
weakness,  confiding,  even  to  credulity,  easily  cajoled  by 
its  flatterers,  submitting  to  be  trampled  under  foot  like  a 
carcase,  during  the  period  of  its  lethargy,  and  at  times 
given  over  to  the  most  courtier-like  obsequiousness. 
Among  the  English  the  reverence  for  tradition,  among  the 
French  the  passion  for  novelty,  predominates ;  among  the 
former  respect  for  the  law,  and  obedience  to  man,  on  con- 


22  LETTER  I. 

dition  that  his  supreme  rule  shall  be  the  law ;  among  the 
latter,  the  worship  of  great  men,  and  submission  to  the 
laws  if  they  are  defended  by  the  sword  of  Caesar.  On 
one  side  the  ruler  of  the  seas,  on  the  other  the  arbiter  of 
the  continent,  rousing  the  world  at  their  pleasure,  the  one 
by  its  lever  of  gold,  the  other  by  the  sound  of  its  voice 
alone.  Surely  from  the  reciprocal  influences  of  two  na- 
tions thus  constituted  and  thus  situated  on  the  globe,  the 
most  important  effects  should  result,  not  only  on  the  gen- 
eral cause  of  civilization,  but  on  their  own  mutual  im- 
provement. 

The  industrial  development  is  not,  indeed,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  whole  man,  but  since  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  no  people  can  be  allowed  to  reckon  itself 
in  the  first  rank  of  nations,  if  it  is  not  advanced  in  the 
industrial  career,  if  it  cannot  labor  and  produce.  No  peo- 
ple will  be  powerful  that  is  not  rich,  and  there  is  now  no 
other  way  of  growing  rich  but  by  work.  In  regard  to 
production  and  labor,  we  have  much  to  learn  from  Eng- 
land, and  it  is  a  lesson  which  is  to  be  learned  by  the  eyes 
rather  than  by  the  ears,  by  observation  better  than  by 
reading.  If,  then,  there  were  a  railroad  between  London 
and  Paris,  the  French,  who  have  now  little  knowledge  of 
business,  would  go  to  London,  where  the  instinct  of 
method  is  in  the  blood,  to  learn.  Our  speculators  would 
go  to  see  how  simply,  promptly,  and  plainly  great  enter- 
prises are  carried  on  ;  our  shop-keepers  and  buyers  have  to 
learn  from  England  that  to  overcharge  and  to  haggle  have 
no  connexion  with  buying  and  selling  advantageously ; 
our  capitalists  and  merchants,  that  there  can  be  no  durable 
commercial  prosperity  nor  security  for  capital,  where  there 
is  no  system  of  credit ;  they  would  see  the  operations  of 
the  Bank  of  England  with  its  branches  and  the  private 
banks,  and  perhaps  they  might  be  incited  to  bring  home, 
with  the  needful  modification,  institutions  and  practices  so 


LONDON  AND  PARIS  RAILROAD.  23 

profitable  at  once  to  the  share  holders  and  to  the  public. 
They  would  here  imbibe  the  spirit  of  association,  which 
in  London  sweats  at  every  pore.*  All  of  us  might  here 
see  in  what  consists  and  how  is  realised,  that  comfort,  that 
care  of  the  person,  so  essential  to  the  peace  and  quiet  of 
one's  life,  and  Paris  might  perhaps  be  led  to  free  itself  from 
the  filth  of  centuries,  which  formerly  gave  it  its  name, 
and  against  which  eighteen  hundred  years  later,  Voltaire, 
whom  the  ancient  monarchy  and  the  faith  of  our  fathers 
could  not  withstand,  warred  in  vain.  As  we  are  full  of 
self-love,  we  should  return  from  England  ashamed  of  the 
wretched  state  of  our  agriculture,  our  roads,  and  our  ele- 
mentary schools,  humbled  at  the  insignificance  of  our  for- 
eign commerce,  and  solicitous  to  vie  with  our  neighbors. 
I  need  not  stop  to  point  out  what  the  English  might  come 
to  seek  among  us,  they  are  already  converts  in  this  matter, 
they  swarm  in  Paris,  while  it  would  be  easy  to  count  up 
the  Frenchmen  who  have  been  in  London.  Without  say- 
ing what  the  English  would  get  in  Paris,  I  may  affirm 
that  they  would  leave  plenty  of  sovereigns  there.  To 
Paris,  the  city  of  pleasures,  the  terrestrial  paradise  of  stran- 
gers, the  railroad  would  be  a  gold  mine,  and  the  English, 
getting  familiar  with  France,  would  find  profitable  invest- 
ments for  their  capital  among  us,  which  would,  give  life 
and  energy  to  useful  enterprises. 

The  railroad  from  London  to  Paris  would  be  a  commer- 
cial enterprise  of  the  first  importance  ;  it  would  also  be  a 
political  instrument,  a  strong  bond  of  union  between  Eng- 
land and  France.  But  it  is  more  especially  as  a  means  of 

*  Thus  the  London  merchants  dispense  with  the  care,  trouble,  and  ex- 
pense of  a  money-chest  on  their  own  premises,  and  all  money  operations  are 
transacted  by  a  small  number  of  bankers  at  the  Clearing  House.  The 
amount  of  these  transactions  often  rises  to  fifteen  millions  sterling  [a  day], 
independently  of  those  which  are  not  strictly  commercial,  and  of  those  of 
the  retailers,  which  do  not  pass  through  the  hands  of  bankers.  See  Bdb- 
bage's  Economy  of  Machinery. 


24  LETTER  I. 

education,  that  it  should  be  most  highly  recommended,  for 
there  is  no  fear  that  the  other  points  of  view  will  be  over- 
looked. The  industrial  arts,  I  said  before,  are  learned 
chiefly  through  the  eyes  ;  this  is  particularly  true  in  regard 
to  the  operatives,  for  in  them,  owing  to  their  manner  of 
life,  the  world  of  sensation  prevails  over  the  world  of  ideas. 
Now  the  progress  of  the  mechanical  arts  depends  not  less 
on  the  workmen  than  on  the  foremen  and  superintendents 
of  the  works ;  it  would  be  expedient,  therefore,  to  send  a 
certain  number  of  picked  operatives  to  pass  a  suitable  time 
in  England,  just  as  the  Board  of  Public  Works  (Fonts  et 
Chaussees]  is  now  in  the  habit  of  sending  a  few  engineers 
thither.  The  railroad,  by  reducing  the  expense  and  trouble 
of  the  journey,  would  probably  furnish  an  opportunity  of 
despatching  companies  of  artisans  selected  from  among 
those  most  worthy  of  the  privilege.  According  to  the 
plan  of  a  merchant  of  Lyons,  a  very  sensible  man,  this 
might  be  done  on  a  large  scale  and  at  little  expense  ;  and 
he  further  proposed  a  system  of  reciprocity,  by  which 
English  workmen  should  be  employed  in  France  and 
French  operatives  in  England.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
this  project  may  one  day  be  made  the  basis  of  a  new  law, 
designed  to  further  the  views  of  our  excellent  law  of  pri- 
mary education ;  but  the  railroad  between  London  and 
Paris  must  first  be  constructed. 

Of  the  small  number  of  Frenchmen  who  have  visited 
England,*  very  few  have  been  led  by  motives  of  business. 
Most  have  undertaken  the  voyage  from  vague  feelings  of 
curiosity,  or  merely  for  pleasure  ;  and  the  objects  of  their 
notice  have  been  the  picturesque,  the  poetical.  They 


*  The  whole  number  of  passengers  to  and  from  Calais,  through  which 
most  of  the  travellers  between  England  and  France  pass,  is  only  about  forty 
thousand  yearly.  This  is  not  more  than  the  number  passing  between  Havre 
and  New  York. 


LONDON  AND  PARIS  RAILROAD.  2/5 

have  visited  the  Gothic  ruins  of  the  monasteries  and  cas- 
tles, the  cave  of  Fingal,  and  the  lakes  of  Scotland,  ad- 
mired the  costume  of  the  Highlanders,  the  horses  and 
jockeys  of  the  great  lords,  and  the  blooming  complexion 
of  the  women.  They  have  walked  through  one  or  two 
parks,  visited  the  hot-houses  where  all  the  plants  of  the 
world  are  collected,  braving,  behind  the  glass,  the  cloudy 
sky  of  Great  Britain.  They  have  been  through  the  dock- 
yards and  military  arsenals,  when  they  could  get  leave, 
under  the  escort  of  a  sergeant,  seen  the  young  beauties  of 
Almacks  and  the  old  curiosities  of  the  Tower,  and  travel- 
led over  England,  just  as  they  would  make  the  tour  of 
Italy  or  Switzerland.  If  the  subject  of  industry  has  oc- 
cupied their  attention  a  moment,  it  is  only  in  reference  to 
the  fashion  of  some  opera  decoration.  They  have,  to  be 
sure,  stood  amazed  at  the  thousands  of  vessels  whose  masts 
stretch  out  of  sight  along  the  Thames  or  in  the  docks  ;* 
they  have  been  delighted  with  the  extent  of  the  great 
manufacturing  towns,  the  magnitude  of  the  manufactories, 
and  the  height  of  their  chimneys,  with  the  magical  bril- 
liancy of  the  gas-lights,  with  the  daring  bridges  of  stone 
or  iron,  and  with  the  fantastical  appearance  of  the  forge- 
fires  in  the  night.  But  they  have  never  asked,  how  came 
England  to  have  such  a  vast  number  of  ships,  how  has 
she  multiplied  and  extended  her  manufactures  to  such  an 
amazing  degree,  and  how  created  these  towns,  so  simple 
in  their  architecture,  but  so  fastidiously  neat  in  their  spa- 
cious streets  ;  they  have  not  thought  to  ask  the  causes  of 
all  this  wealth  and  prosperity. 

Yet  he  who  expects  to  return  satisfied  from  England 
should  visit  her  as  the  dueen  of  industry ;  he  should  see 
the  city  rather  than  Regent's  Park,  the  East  India  House 


It  is  estimated  that  25,000  vessels  enter  the  port  of  London  yearly. 

4 


26  LETTER  I. 

rather  than  Windsor  Castle,  seek  out  the  Bank  before  St. 
Paul's,  the  Clearing  House  before  Somerset  House,  take 
more  interest  in  the  docks  and  Commercial  House,  than 
in  the  armor  preserved  in  the  Tower.  He  should  go  to 
the  warehouses,  the  counting-houses,  the  workshops,  in 
pursuit  of  the  genius  of  Great  Britain.  He  must  tear 
himself  from  the  magnificent  hospitality  of  the  English 
country  seats,  and  give  up  his  time  to  the  mines  and  the 
forges,  which  furnish  industry  with  its  daily  bread,  its 
coal  and  iron.  (Notes  1  and  2  at  the  end  of  the  vol- 
ume. )  He  must  mingle  with  the  stout  and  active  work- 
men, quite  as  much  as  with  the  more  refined  society 
in  the  saloons  of  the  nobility.  For  myself,  I  have  found 
nothing  in  London  which  has  struck  me  as  more  original, 
and  given  me  greater  pleasure,  than  a  shop  in  Old  Change, 
whose  ware-rooms  contain  twenty  times  as  many  goods  as 
the  largest  warehouse  in  Paris,  and  whose  business  trans- 
actions amount  to  two  millions  sterling  a  year,  and  the 
great  brewery  of  Barclay,  Perkins  &  Co.  near  London 
Bridge,  the  order  and  arrangement  of  which  are  still  more 
striking  than  its  vast  extent. 

As  I  stood  is.  this  brewery,  on  a  floor  on  which,  dis- 
tributed in  different  rooms,  there  were  ninetynine  vats, 
some  of  them  holding  500,000  or  600,000  bottles,  I  thought 
of  the  famous  Heidelberg  tun  which  I  had  seen  some  years 
ago.  It  is  the  only  object  in  a  tolerable  state  of  preserva- 
tion in  the  delicious  chateau  of  the  Palatine  counts,  and 
it  is  faithfully  visited  by  all  travellers  who  go  to  see  that 
fine  ruin,  perhaps  the  finest  relic  of  the  feudal  times. 
What  a  difference  now  between  the  old  chateau  of  Hei- 
delberg with  its  tun,  and  the  colossal  establishment  of  the 
English  brewer  with  its  regiment  of  tuns !  The  old  castle 
crumbles  to  pieces ;  the  rich  Gothic  sculptures  are  wearing 
away.  In  vain  has  a  French  artist  (and,  strange  coinci- 


LONDON  AND  PARIS  RAILROAD.  27 

dence !  that  artist  himself  another  relic  of  the  feudal  age, 
an  emigre,  who  with  a  praiseworthy  zeal  has  been  for  a 
long  time  the  self-constituted  guardian  of  this  fine  old 
monument,)  in  vain  has  he  urged  the  government  of 
Baden,  to  whom  the  castle  belongs,  to  take  some  measures 
for  its  preservation.  Each  year  some  new  dilapidation  is 
caused  by  the  frosts  of  winter  and  the  storms  of  autumn  ; 
the  old  chateau  will  soon  become  a  shapeless  mass,  the 
very  stones  will  probably  be  sold,  and  nothing  will  remain, 
but  the  drawings  of  M.  de  Graimbert,  to  show  what  it  has 
been.  The  Knights'  Hall  is  stripped  of  its  roof — the 
arches,  which  support  the  superb  terrace  whence  the  eye 
wanders  over  the  lovely  vale  of  the  Neckar  and  its  beauti- 
ful heights, — those  arches,  rent  by  the  powder  of  Louvois, 
— will  some  day  sink.  Meanwhile,  the  brewery  is  en- 
riched one  day  with  a  new  building,  and  the  next  with  a 
new  steam-engine  ;  and  in  case  of  any  damage  by  fire,  as 
recently  happened,  the  loss  is  immediately  repaired ;  in 
the  place  of  the  building  destroyed  by  the  flames,  rises 
one  more  splendid,  in  which  the  free  use  of  iron  will  be  a 
protection  against  new  ravages. 

The  statues  of  the  Palatine  electors  are  overthrown  in 
their  niches ;  no  son  of  their  vassals  will  set  them  up 
again  ;  but  at  the  brewery  everything  is  in  perfect  order  ; 
each  tool  hangs  on  its  nail,  each  kettle  is  kept  well-rubbed 
and  bright.  The  stables  of  the  noble  prince  are  a  heap  of 
ruins ;  in  the  stables  of  the  brewer,  rivalling  those  of 
Chantilly,  where  the  great  Conde  entertained  kings,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  horses,  fit  steeds  for  Goliah,  are  objects 
of  as  careful  attention,  as  those,  perhaps,  which  surrounded 
the  persons  of  the  first  Electors  and  their  gallant  knights. 
The  old  tun  has  been  empty  for  a  century  and  a  half;  the 
curious  may  enter  it,  and  take  its  measure  ;  once  only  has 
M.  de  Graimbert  seen  it  spout  wine  ;  it  was  in  1813,  in 


28  LETTER  I. 

honour  of  the  emperor  Alexander  and  his  allies,  the  sove- 
reigns of  Austria  and  Prussia.  Even  then  it  was  only  a 
pious  fraud,  the  old  tun  was  not  full,  the  wine  flowed  from 
a  base  barrel  which  had  been  stuck  in  it  the  night  before. 
The  ninety-nine  vats  of  Barclay,  Perkins  &  Co.  are  always 
full  of  beer ;  that  which  is  daily  drawn  off,  and  sent  all 
over  the  United  Kingdom  and  North  America,  and  finds 
its  way  even  to  the  East  Indies,  would  fill  the  classical 
tun  of  the  Palatine  Casimir.*  The  secret  of  this  con- 
trast may  easily  be  explained ;  the  great  feudal  tun  could 
only  be  filled  by  the  produce  of  the  feudal  impositions, 
whilst  the  vats  of  the  brewery  are  filled  by  the  voluntary 
co-operation  of  three  hundred  men,  sure  of  gathering  daily 
the  fruits  of  their  industry ;  the  Heidelberg  tun  was  emp- 
tied only  to  administer  to  the  pleasures  of  the  prince  or 
his  favorites,  while  the  vats  of  the  brewer  quench  the 
thirst  of  a  numerous  population,  which  works  hard,  re- 
ceives good  pay,  and  pays  its  providers  well. 

The  silence  and  desolation  of  the  old  castle,  contrasted 
with  the  bustle  and  prosperity  of  the  English  brewery, 
are  a  striking  emblem  of  the  feudal  system  compared  with 
the  modern  power  of  peace  and  creative  industry.  All 
nations,  in  proportion  as  they  have  the  power  to  change 
the  warlike  qualities  of  the  feudal  age  into  the  useful 
qualities  of  the  labourer,  or  as  they  want  the  capacity  thus 
to  re-cast  themselves,  may  read  their  own  destiny,  either 
in  the  state  of  the  flourishing  manufactory,  or  in  that  of 
the  deserted  and  crumbling  castle.  Happy  the  people, 
who,  like  France  and  England,  have  had  strength  to  shake 
off  the  past,  and  who,  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  their 
liberties,  have  only  to  concern  themselves  about  the  future  ! 
Woe  to  th?t  people,  which  will  not,  or  cannot,  tear  itself 
away  from  the  past !  That  people  is  worn  out ;  it  will 

*  50,000  gallons. 


LIVERPOOL  AND  THE  RAILROAD.          2$ 

die  of  consumption,  and  will  leave  behind  nothing  but 
ruins,  poetical,  perhaps,  but  still  none  the  less  ruins,  that 
is,  death  and  desolation :  unless  indeed  a  new  blood  be 
infused  into  its  veins,  or  in  other  words,  unless  it  be  con- 
quered like  unhappy  Poland. 


LETTER  II. 

LIVERPOOL  AND  THE   RAILROAD. 

LIVERPOOL,  Nov.  7,  1833. 

I  HAVE  just  come  back  from  Manchester  by  the  rail- 
road, which  is  a  fine  piece  of  work ;  I  know  of  nothing 
that  gives  a  higher  idea  of  the  power  of  man.  There  are 
impressions  which  one  cannot  describe ;  such  is  that  of 
being  hurried  along  at  the  rate  of  half  a  mile  a  minute, 
or  thirty  miles  an  hour  (the  speed  of  the  train  as  we 
started  from  Manchester,)  without  being  the  least  incom- 
moded, and  with  the  most  complete  feeling  of  security, 
for  only  one  accident  has  happened  since  the  opening  of 
the  road,  and  that  was  owing  to  the  imprudence  of  the 
individual  who  perished.  You  pass  over  and  under  roads, 
rivers,  and  canals ;  you  cross  other  railroads,  and  a  great  num- 
ber of  other  roads,  without  any  trouble  or  confusion.  The 
great  forethought  and  spirit  of  order  which  in  England 
they  suck  in  with  their  mothers'  milk,  preside  in  every 
part,  and  make  it  impossible  that  the  trains  should  fall 
foul  of  each  other,  or  that  the  cars  should  run  down  un- 
lucky travellers,  or  the  farmers'  wagons ;  all  along  the 
route  are  gates,  which  open  and  shut  at  the  precise  moment 


30  LETTER  II. 

of  time,  and  watchmen  on  the  look  out.  How  many  per- 
sons in  France  would  be  benefitted  by  this  short  trip,  did 
it  serve  only  as  a  lesson  of  order  and  forecast !  And  then 
the  Mount  Olive  cut  is  as  well  worth  seeing  as  Roland's 
Breacli ;  the  Wappfng  tunnel  will  bear  a  comparison  with 
the  caves  of  Campan ;  the  dike  across  Chat  Moss  seems  to 
me  as  full  of  interest  as  the  remains  of  the  most  famous 
Roman  ways,  not  excepting  even  the  Appian  itself;  and 
there  is  a  column,  which,  though  only  a  chimney  for  a 
steam-engine,  is  not,  perhaps,  less  perfect  in  its  proportions 
than  Pompey's  Pillar.  Many  tourists,  even  persons  who 
have  not  been  made  weary  of  sight-seeing  in  Switzerland 
and  Italy,  would  find  Chester  Bridge,  which  is  not,  indeed, 
on  the  road,  but  is  nevertheless  very  near  it,  quite  as  wor- 
thy of  a  visit  as  the  Devil's  Bridge  ;  not  to  mention  that 
the  burning  cinders  which  the  engine  strews  along  the 
route,  might  suggest  to  the  traveller,  without  any  great 
stretch  of  fancy,  the  idea  of  being  transported  in  a  fiery 
car,  certainly  the  most  poetical  of  all  vehicles. 

Those  who  doubt  the  policy  of  introducing  railroads 
into  France,  and  think  it  prudent  to  wait  for  more  light, 
cite,  among  other  arguments,  the  experiments  continually 
making  in  England  to  apply  locomotive  engines  to  com- 
mon roads,  the  success  of  which,  they  think,  would  save 
the  expense  of  rails.  There  is  no  doubt  that  railroads, 
like  every  other  new  invention,  are  susceptible  of  improve- 
ment ;  but  they  will  always  be  expensive,  and  while  other 
nations  keep  up  such  schools  as  the  Manchester  and  Liv- 
erpool railroad,  and  we  stand  looking  on  with  folded  arms, 
we  shall  soon  find  ourselves,  by  excess  of  caution,  fallen 
behind  all  Europe  in  manufactures  and  commerce.  As 
for  the  steam-engines  of  Gurney,  Dance,  or  anybody  else, 
there  is  no  hope  that  they  will  enable  us  to  save  the  ex- 
pense of  rails.  I  think  it,  indeed,  very  probable  that 
engines  may  be  made  to  take  the  place  of  horses  on  roads 


LIVERPOOL  AND  THE  RAILROAD.  31 

kept  in  such  a  state  as  the  English  highways  ;  but  upon 
any  road  whatsoever,  and  whatever  motive  power  is  em- 
ployed, engines  or  horses,  in  order  to  reach  a  great  speed, 
from  twenty  five  to  thirty  miles  an  hour,  for  instance,  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  cut  through  hills,  and  to  fill  up  or 
bridge  over  the  valleys,  just  as  is  done  for  railroads.  Be- 
sides this  great  speed  forbids  the  free  circulation  of  vehi- 
cles, and  makes  it  necessary  to  avoid  the  level  of  the 
frequented  routes,  and  to  pass  over  or  under  them  by  means 
of  tunnels  or  bridges.  None  of  the  inconveniences,  or 
liabilities  of  railroads  would  be  avoided  by  this  system  ; 
the  expense  would  be  almost  the  same,  for  the  most  costly 
portion  of  the  work  in  railroads  is  the  cuts  and  embank- 
ments, the  bridges  and  viaducts ;  the  iron  required  for  the 
rails  forms  less  than  one-third  of  the  expenditure.  The 
expenses  of  superintending  the  routes  would  be  the  same. 
Besides,  the  road  once  graded,  there  would  be  a  great  gain 
in  laying  rails,  that  is,  in  making  a  complete  railroad, 
however  little  might  be  the  amount  of  transportation ;  for 
on  a  Macadamised  road  the  force  of  friction  is  ten  times 
that  on  iron  rails,  so  that  the  use  of  these  new  locomotive 
carriages  can  never  supply  the  place  of  railways. 

The  correctness  of  these  views  is  proved  by  what  is 
now  doing  in  England ;  while  the  new  steam  carriages 
are  getting  ready  for  regular  service,  railroad  companies 
are  already  at  work  or  are  organizing  in  all  quarters.  Two 
works  are  now  in  progress  which  will  connect  Liverpool 
with  London,  by  way  of  Birmingham  ;  the  whole  length 
will  be  one  hundred  and  ninetyfive  miles.  Although  a 
trial  of  the  new  carriages  is  making  on  the  Birmingham 
road,  shares  in  the  railroad  between  that  town  and  London 
are  at  a  high  premium.  Another  company  is  preparing  to 
construct  a  railroad  from  London  to  Bath  and  Bristol,  a 
distance  of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  miles ;  companies  are 
also  formed  for  connecting  London  with  Southampton,  on 


32  LETTER  II. 

the  Havre  route  to  Paris,  and  with  Brighton,  on  the  Dieppe 
route  ;  other  shorter  works  are  projected.  It  is  not  that 
the  experiments  of  Gurney  and  Dance  are  unknown  or 
slighted ;  on  the  contrary,  their  importance  is  fully  felt ; 
the  newspapers  are  full  of  them,  and  they  even  excite 
some  enthusiasm.  In  this  country,  where  it  is  a  settled 
maxim  that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  I  saw  vessels 
all  along  the  road  which  had  been  gratuitously  brought 
and  filled  by  the  inhabitants  for  the  use  of  one  of  these 
steam-carriages ;  unluckily  the  carriage  did  not  arrive 
when  it  was  expected ;  it  had  got  out  of  order,  as  it  too 
often  does. 

The  Liverpool  and  Manchester  railroad  owes  its  brilliant 
success  to  the  substantial  and  permanent  nature  of  the 
interest  which  binds  together  the  two  towns.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  realize  a  more  complete  division  of  labor  ; 
Manchester,  with  the  country  twenty  miles  round  it,  is 
nothing  but  a  workshop ;  Liverpool  manufactures  nothing, 
but  merely  sells  what  her  neighbours  produce.  Liverpool 
is  not,  whatever  the  guide  book  may  say,  another  Venice, 
rising  from  the  waves ;  it  is  a  counting-house,  and  noth- 
ing but  a  counting-house,  though  on  a  vast  scale, 
and  under  the  most  perfect  regulations,  of  any  in  the 
world.  The  business  is  all  done  in  a  space  smaller 
than  the  Place  du  Carrousel,  where  are  the  handsome 
Exchange,  the  Town  House,  and  all  the  banking  houses, 
&c.  At  four  or  five  o'clock  each  one  shuts  up  his  cell  (for 
the  offices  deserve  this  name),  and  retires  to  his  house  or 
his  country  seat,  for  many  of  the  residences  are  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Mersey.  Liverpool  and  Manchester  are 
surrounded  by  a  double  and  three  fold  series  of  canals ;  the 
Duke  of  Bridgewater's  canal,  the  Leeds  and  Liverpool, 
the  Sankey,  Leigh,  Bolton  and  Bury,  Mersey  and  Irwell 
canals,  without  taking  into  account  the  rivers  Irwell,  Mer- 
sey, and  Weaver,  which  though  small,  form  fine  bays  at 


LIVERPOOL  AND  THE  RAILROAD.  33 

their  mouths,  and  are  more  easily  and  regularly  navigable 
than  our  great  rivers,  while  the  navigation  is  carried  on 
with  a  promptitude  and  despatch  wholly  unknown  in 
France.  Since  the  peace  these  two  towns  have  enjoyed 
such  a  high  degree  of  prosperity,  that  ten  years  ago  these 
means  of  communication,  with  the  addition  of  a  fine  road, 
were  found  to  be  insufficient.  The  counting-house  and 
the  manufactory  wished  to  be  nearer  to  each  other ;  ac- 
cordingly, on  the  10th  of  May,  1824,  a  memorial,  signed 
by  one  hundred  and  fifty  merchants,  declared  the  necessity 
of  new  routes  ;  and  a  railroad  was  decided  on.  The  work 
was  begun  in  June,  1826,  and  the  road  was  opened  in  due 
form,  on  the  15th  of  September,  1830.  A  tunnel  is  now 
constructing,  one  mile  and  a  quarter  in  length,  which  will 
carry  the  railroad  into  the  heart  of  the  town,  and  will  cost 
about  800,000  dollars. 

The  chief  article  of  English  commerce,  that  in  which 
it  has  no  rival,  and  which  opens  all  the  ports  of  the  world 
to  English  vessels,  is  cottons  of  all  descriptions.  The 
value  of  the  produce  and  manufactures  annually  exported 
from  the  United  Kingdom,' during  the  last  ten  years,  has 
averaged  190  millions  of  dollars.*  That  of  cottons  alone 
has  ranged  from  80  to  90  millions,  and  the  greater  part  is 
made  in-  Manchester  and  the  vicinity,  f  This  single  fact 
would  sufficiently  explain  the  commercial  importance  of 
Liverpool ;  add  to  this  that  Liverpool  is  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  founderies  and  forges  of  Staffordshire  and 
Shropshire,  and  the  manufactories  of  Birmingham  and 


"The  annual  exports  of  France  are  little  more  than  half  this  sum.  (See 
Note  3,  at  the  end  of  the  volume.) 

t  The  population  of  Lancashire,  in  which  are  situated  Liverpool  and 
Manchester,  increased,  between  1801  and  1831,  from  672,731  to  1.336,854, 
that  is,  it  doubled.  The  increase  of  population  in  the  rest  of  the  United 
Kingdom  waa  only  fifty  per  cent. 

5 


34  LETTER  II. 

Sheffield ;  that  the  diminished  width  of  the  island,  in  the 
53d  degree  of  latitude,  enables  her  to  reach  out  her  hands  at 
once  to  the  eastern  and  western  coasts  ;  that  she  is  the  cen- 
tre of  the  business  between  England  and  Ireland  ;  that 
she  approaches,  at  the  same  time,  Scotland  and  Wales  ;  that 
she  is  the  head  quarters  of  steam  navigation  in  England, 
and  it  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  Liverpool  is  the 
seat  of  a  prodigious  commerce,  inferior  only  to  that  of 
London.  Eleven  thousand  vessels  measuring  1,400,000 
tons,  enter  her  nine  docks  every  year ;  two-fifths  of  the 
whole  exports  of  England  are  shipped  hence,  and  more  than 
one-fifth  of  the  British  customs  duty,  or  nearly  20,000,000 
dollars  (equal  to  the  total  sum  of  the  French  customs),  are 
collected  here.  Since  the  modification  of  the  East  India 
Company's  charter,  the  Liverpool  merchants  flatter  them- 
selves with  the  hope  of  securing  a  great  part  of  the  India 
trade,  which  has  hitherto  been  monopolized  by  London  ; 
they  aspire  to  rival  the  commerce  of  the  capital,  and  it 
must  be  confessed  that  they  are  taking  the  right  road  to 
success. 

In  tracing  the  history  of  Liverpool,  Manchester,  or  any 
other  English  town,  we  are  struck  with  a  fact  which  is 
full  of  good  omen  for  France  ;  it  is  this,  that  a  people  never 
engages  heartily  and  successfully  in  commerce  and  manu- 
factures, until  it  feels  itself  safe  from  civil  or  religious 
despotism ;  but  once  assured  on  that  point,  it  moves  rapid- 
ly and  right  forward  in  its  industrial  career.  So  long  as 
England  was  restrained  in  her  franchises  or  her  faith,  she 
was  possessed  with  one  idea,  how  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  ;  once  freed  from  this  care,  she  has  achieved  in  the 
different  branches  of  industry  what  no  nation  has  ever 
done  before.  In  the  beginning  of  the  last  century, 
not  long  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Stuarts,  when  Liv- 
erpool had  only  5,000  inhabitants,  with  no  commerce 
but  a  feeble  coasting  trade,  some  of  her  merchants  con- 


LIVERPOOL  AND  THE  RAILROAD.  35 

ceived  the  idea  of  competing  with  Bristol,  which  then 
monopolized  the.  West  Indian  trade.  Bristol  exported  to 
America  the  products  of  the  fisheries  in  the  German 
Ocean,  and  some  fustians  and  checks  manufactured  in 
Germany,  and  the  Liverpool  adventurers  took  cargoes  of 
Scotch  stuffs;  but  the  attempt  was  unsuccessful,  the 
Scotch  goods  were  of  inferior  quality.  Manchester  then 
relieved  them  from  this  difficulty;  there  were  already 
some  manufacturers  in  that  place,  who  imitated  and  sur- 
passed the  German  articles,  and  thus  provided,  the  mer- 
chants of  Liverpool  were  able  to  sustain  a  competition 
with  those  of  Bristol.  The  smuggling  trade  with  the 
Spanish  colonies,  and  the  slave  trade,  undertaken  in  com- 
petition with  Bristol,  continued  to  enrich  Liverpool  and 
consequently  Manchester.  In  1764,  when  Bristol  fitted 
out  32  ships  for  Africa  and  74  for  America,  Liverpool  ran 
105  to  the  former  and  141  to  the  latter ;  in  the  same  year 
1589  vessels  entered  the  port  of  Liverpool,  while  only 
675  arrived  at  Bristol.  At  present  Bristol  is  a  second-rate 
mart  compared  with  Liverpool ;  not  that  the  former  has 
declined  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  wealthy  city,  with  a 
trade  tenfold  what  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago.  But  in 
the  midst  of  the  general  progress,  Liverpool  has  advanced 
at  high  -speed.  It  now  contains  180,000  inhabitants,  or, 
including  the  suburbs,  225,000,  without  reckoning  the 
floating  population  of  strangers  and  sailors.  During  the 
siege  of  Calais,  when  Edward  III.  collected  all  the  strength 
of  England,  this  town  found  it  difficult  to  furnish  one 
vessel,  carrying  six  men ;  in  1829,  it  owned  806  vessels 
of  161,780  tons  burthen,  manned  by  9,091  sailors.  (See 
Note  4,  at  the  end  of  the  volume.)  During  the  wars  of 
the  French  Revolution,  Liverpool  was  able  to  bear  her 
share  of  the  burdens  of  the  country,  and  to  spend  170,000 
dollars  annually  in  works  of  public  utility  and  in  embel- 
lishing the  town.  In  1797  she  volunteered  to  raise  a  troop 


36  LETTER  II. 

of  horse  and  eight  companies  of  foot  at  her  own  charge  ; 
in  1798  she  raised  a  regiment  of  volunteers  and  the  sum 
of  80,000  dollars,  and  in  1803,  when  Napoleon  threatened 
England  with  invasion,  two  regiments  of  infantry  and 
600  artillerists.  In  the  same  period  a  host  of  useful 
and  charitable  institutions  were  founded  by  subscription, 
and  the  Exchange  was  built  at  the  cost  of  600.000 
dollars.  All  this  is  the  work  of  one  century ;  hardly  had 
James  II.  reached  Saint  Germain,  when  the  first  dock  in 
Liverpool  was  opened  ;  within  thirty  years  the  Mersey  and 
Irwell  were  canalled.  It  was  the  same  throughout  Eng- 
land. We  must  not  exaggerate  and  abuse  historical  paral- 
lels, but,  unless  we  shut  our  eyes,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
perceive  a  striking  analogy  between  the  state  of  England 
after  the  fall  of  the  Stuarts,  and  that  of  France  since 
1830.  With  both  people  there  is  a  feeling  of  profound 
security  in  regard  to  their  liberties,  a  deep  conviction 
that  they  have  gained  a  decisive  victory,  and  that  they 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  encroachments  of  the  civil 
power  or  of  a  religious  corporation  ;  the  same  wish  to  see 
political  reforms  gives  rise  to  substantial  and  palpable  im- 
provement in  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  the  same 
disposition  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  enlighten  and 
realize  the  popular  will. 

The  old  dynasties  of  England  and  France  fell  in  con- 
sequence of  their  efforts  to  give  political  power  to  the 
clergy,  rather  than  from  any  attempt  to  restore  the  feudal 
system  with  its  brutality  and  its  rapacity  ;  for  the  deposed 
princes  themselves  were  neither  rapacious  nor  violent. 
The  English  revolution,  however,  was  far  from  giving 
birth  to  irreligion ;  Liverpool, — which  is,  so  to  speak,  of 
»to-day,  which  bears  the  stamp,  not  of  England  as  she  was 
in  the  sixteenth  or  the  fourteenth  century,  but  of  England 
as  she  was  in  the  eighteenth  century,  as  she  is  in  our 
own  time, — Liverpool  is  a  proof  of  this.  There  is  no  town 


WAR  AGAINST  THE  BANK.  37 

in  France  which  numbers  as  many  churches  as  Liverpool, 
where  there  are  thirtyseven  of  the  establishment,  in  addi- 
tion to  fortythree  dissenters'  chapels  and  meeting  houses, 
Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Methodist,  Unitarian,  Quaker,  Jew- 
ish, and  Roman  Catholic  ;  the  last  have  here  five  cha- 
pels. Most  of  these  have  been  built  since  1750,  and 
nearly  one  half  since  1800 ;  I  have  a  list  under  my  eye, 
and  the  dates  are  1803,  1810,  1813,  1814,  1815,  1815, 
1815,  1816,  1821,  1826,  1826,  1827,  1827,  1830,  1831. 
Are  we  to  believe  that  this  analogy  will  hold  good  on  our 
own  soil,  and  that  as  she  grows  rich  by  industry,  France 
will  return  to  the  religious  sentiment  ?  I  wish  it,  I  hope  it  ; 
we  are  already  past  the  time  when  atheism  was  fashiona- 
ble in  France  ;  it  will  not,  however,  be  under  the  flag  of 
the  Anglican  church,  or  of  any  other  protestant  sect  that 
France  will  rally ;  she  must  have  a  more  imposing  and 
pompous  worship. 


LETTER  III. 

WAR  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES  UPON  THE  BANK. 

NEW   YORK,  JANUARY  1,  1834. 

THIS  country  is  now  in  the  crisis  of  a  high  industrial 
fever,  which  has  assumed  a  political  character,  and  is  of  a 
very  serious  nature ;  for  the  industrial  interest;  in  this 
country,  is  the  most  important.  Last  year,  when  the  dis- 
pute between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States,  relative 
to  the  tariff  was  settled,  (see  Note  5,  at  the  end  of 


38  LETTER  III. 

the  volume,)  the  wise  and  prudent  thanked  God,  that 
the  danger,  which  had  threatened  their  country,  had 
been  averted ;  there  seemed  to  them  nothing  further  to 
obstruct  its  triumphant  career  of  conquests  over  nature, 
with  an  ever  accelerated  rapidity  and  increased  success. 
A  series  of  causes,  to  appearance  of  slight  moment,  has 
changed  these  hopes  into  fears.  Some  trifling  circum- 
stances revived  the  old  quarrel  between  the  democratic 
party,  to  which  the  President  belongs,  and  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  and  both  sides  grew  warm. 
(See  Note  6,  at  the  end  of  the  volume.)  President 
Jackson,  a  man  of  good  intentions  and  ardent  patriotism, 
but  too  hasty  towards  those  who  venture  to  contradict 
him,  declared  a  deadly  war  against  the  Bank,  and  pushed 
it  with  all  the  energy  and  fury,  in  the  same  cut-and-thrust 
style,  that  he  had  the  war  against  the  Indians  and  English 
twenty  years  before.  He  set  his  veto  to  the  bill  that  had 
passed  both  houses  of  Congress,  renewing  the  Bank  char- 
ter, which  was  about  to  expire  in  three  years.  Not  satis- 
fied with  this  blow,  he  withdrew  from  the  hands  of  the 
Bank  the  public  money,  which,  by  the  provisions  of  its 
charter,  had  been  deposited  in  them,  and  which  gave  it 
the  means  of  very  materially  extending  its  operations ; 
for  the  excess  of  the  deposits  over  the  exigencies  of  the 
government  amount  to  not  less  than  ten  millions.  The 
Bank,  which  had  paid  to  the  government  a  bonus  of 
1,500,000  dollars  for  the  privilege  of  being  the  de- 
pository of  the  public  funds,  cried  out  loudly  against  this 
measure,  and  with  good  reason,  for  no  one  denies,  that  no 
institution  in  the  union  is  better  able  to  meet  all  its  lia- 
bilities. It  has  reduced  its  discounts,  first,  because  the 
removal  of  the  public  deposits  has  diminished  the  amount 
of  specie  in  its  vaults,  and  also,  as  it  declares,  whether 
right  or  wrong,  because  its  very  existence  being  threatened 
by  the  President's  veto,  it  is  prudent  to  restrain  the  sphere  of 


WAR  AGAINST  THE  BANK.  39 

its  operations,  and  to  prepare  in  time  for  the  final  settlement 
of  its  concerns.  As  this  institution  takes  the  lead  in  the 
financial  world,  the  other  banks,  even  those  to  which  the 
public  deposits  have  been  transferred,  have  been  obliged,  in 
their  turn,  to  restrict  their  operations.  Not  only  are  they 
afraid  to  extend  their  discounts  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  these  deposits,  but  they  are  obliged  to  contract  them, 
because  they  find  themselves,  as  objects  of  the  favour  of 
government  in  this  respect,  in  a  state  of  hostility  with 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  it  is  necessary  to  be  on 
their  guard  in  the  presence  of  so  formidable  an  adversary. 
Thus  are  the  sources  of  credit  suddenly  dried  up.  Now 
credit  is  the  life-blood  of  the  prosperity  of  the  United 
States ;  without  credit,  the  populous  towns  which  are 
springing  up  on  all  sides,  as  if  by  magic,  the  opulent 
States,  which,  far  away  from  the  Atlantic  and  beyond  the 
Alleghanies,  stretch  along  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi, 
would  become  a  solitary  wilderness,  savage  forests  or  path- 
less swamps.  The  city  of  New  York  alone  has  twenty 
banks,  the  annual  average  discounts  of  which,  during  the 
last  eight  years,  have  amounted  to  one  hundred  millions. 
At  Paris,  where  the  transactions  are  certainly  more  exten- 
sive than  in  New  York,  the  discounts  of  the  Bank  of 
France,  "in  1831,  amounted  to  223  million  francs,  and  in 
1832  to  151  millions.*  The  amount  of  the  discounts  of  the 
Philadelphia  banks,  in  1831,  was  150  millions.  A  gen- 
eral shock  to  credit,  however  transient,  is  here  more  ter- 
rible than  the  most  frightful  earthquake. 

If  I  did  not  fear  to  lengthen  out  this  letter  beyond  mea- 
sure, I  would  give  some  details  concerning  the  struggle 


"  The  maximum  of  the  discounts  of  the  Bank  of  France  was  in  1810,  when 
it  amounted  to  710  million  francs.  In  1813,  they  were  640  millions,  in 
1826,  689  millions ;  at  these  two  periods  the  Bank  made  a  great  effort  to 
sustain  commerce.  It  had  less  courage  in  the  crisis  of  1831—32. 


40  LETTER  111 

between  the  two  parties,  concerning  their  tactics  and  their 
measures  in  Congress  and  out  of  it,  concerning  Mr  Clay's 
speeches  and  General  Jackson's  home  thrusts.  But  1  think 
it  more  important  at  present,  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
part  which  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  has  played  since 
its  establishment,  and  to  the  causes  which  stirred  up 
against  it  that  mass  of  hatred  and  distrust,  from  which 
General  Jackson  derives  confidence  in  his  measures.  For 
it  is  not  merely  his  own  dislike  that  he  gratifies  ;  from  the 
last  elections,  which  in  almost  all  the  States  are  based  on 
universal  suffrage,  it  is  plain  that  the  numerical  majority 
of  the  population  is,  at  this  moment,  opposed  to  the 
Bank. 

The  Americans  had  already  used  and  abused  systems  of 
credit  while  under  the  English  rule.  As  soon  as  they  had 
achieved  their  independence,  they  became  bolder  in  their 
enterprises,  more  sanguine,  or,  if  you  please,  more  rash  in 
their  speculations.  They  stood  in  great  need  of  credit  ; 
the  number  of  banks  was  multiplied,  and  many  abuses 
crept  in.  The  State  legislatures  made  no  difficulty  in 
granting  bank-charters  to  whoever  asked  for  them,  and  in 
this  respect  they  have  not  changed  their  practice.  If  they 
imposed  some  restraints,  they  had  no  means  of  ascertain- 
ing or  securing  their  strict  observance.  The  banks,  there- 
fore, often  issued  an  amount  of  bills  wholly  disproportion- 
ate to  their  real  capital,  not  merely  twice  or  thrice,  but  ten 
times  the  value'  of  their  specie  and  other  means.  The 
originators  of  the  bank  often  chose  themselves  directors, 
and  discounted  no  paper  but  their  own,  or  rather  they  lent 
to  themselves  the  whole  circulation  of  the  bank,  on  the 
bare  deposit  of  the  bank  shares.  This  was  an  ingenious 
process  to  enable  whoever  pleased  to  coin  current  money, 
without  ingots  of  gold  or  silver.  The  mismanagement  of 
these  banking  companies  has  sometimes  been  such,  that 
instances  have  occurred  where  the  officers  of  the  bank 


WAR  AGAINST  THE  BANK.  41 

have,  on  their  own  authority,  opened  a  credit  for  them- 
selves, and  generally  admitted  their  friends  to  share  in  the 
privilege.  Thus  it  was  discovered,  that  the  cashier  of  the 
City  Bank  in  Baltimore  had  lent  himself  166,548  dollars, 
and  had  made  loans  to  one  of  his  friends  to  the  amount  of 
185,382  dollars ;  all  the  other  officers  had  taken  the  same 
liberty,  with  the  exception  of  one  clerk  and  the  porter. 
The  banks  abusing  the  privilege  of  issuing  bills,  that  is 
to  say  of  making  loans,  individuals  abused  the  privilege 
of  borrowing ;  hence  mad  speculations,  and  consequently 
losses  by  the  lender  and  borrower.  The  banks  cloaked 
theirs  by  new  issues  of  paper,  individuals  theirs  by  new 
loans ;  but  there  were  many  failures  of  speculators,  and 
some  of  banks.  The  latter  excited  the  public  indignation 
without  reforming  any  one.  The  honest  and  moderate 
working  classes,  the  farmers*  and  mechanics,  who  found 
that  in  the  end  they  were  the  dupes  of  the  speculators, 
since  by  the  depreciation  of  the  paper  money,  which  they 
had  taken  as  so  much  specie,  they  came  in  for  a  share  of 
the  loss,  but  had  no  part  in  the  gain,  that  is,  in  the  divi- 
dends, conceived  a  violent  hatred  against  the  banking  sys- 
tem, To  this  particular  cause  of  dislike,  was  added  that 
aversion  which  may  be  found  in  Europe  and  everywhere 
else,  felt  by  persons  of  methodical  habits,  gaining  little  by 
hard  labour,  but  gaining  regularly,  against  those  who  are  im- 
patient to  make  their  fortune,  and  to  make  it  at  all  events,  and 
who  waste  what  they  make  in  the  most  unbounded  luxury 
and  by  the  most  foolish  enterprises,  in  less  time  than  they 
have  been  in  acquiring  it.  Then  there  was  the  natural  jeal- 
ousy pf  simplicity  against  cunning,  of  slow  and  heavy 
minds  against  the  shrewd  penetration  of  others.  There 

*  The  Americans  have  retained  the  English  word  farmer,  which  proper- 
ly signifies  one  who  cultivates  a  hired  soil,  fermier,  although  among  them 
the  cultivators  are  proprietors. 

6 


42  LETTER  III. 

was  also  that  suspicious  distrust  of  all  new  influences,  and 
all  power  that  aims  to  strike  its  roots  deep,  a  distrust,  which 
is  essential  to  the  American,  and  which  is  the  source,  ex- 
planation, and  safe-guard  of  his  republican  institutions.  In 
short,  in  1811,  when  the  old  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
which  was  on  a  much  smaller  scale  than  the  present  Bank, 
petitioned  Congress  for  a  renewal  of  its  charter,  an  appeal 
was  made  to  the  farmers  and  mechanics,  and,  as  at  the 
present  day,  the  hobgoblin  of  a  new  aristocracy,  and  the 
worst  of  all,  an  aristocracy  of  money,  was  summoned  up ; 
the  petition  was  not  granted. 

Soon  after,  in  1812,  war  broke  out  between  England 
and  the  United  States.  The  natural  effect  of  war  is  to 
diminish  confidence,  to  make  the  merchants  timid,  specu- 
lators cautious.  Most  of  the  banks,  having  been  managed 
with  little  prudence  in  better  times,  were  soon  unable  to 
meet  the  call  for  specie  by  the  public  ;  they  solicited  and 
obtained  from  their  respective  legislatures  leave  to  suspend 
specie  payments.  Their  bills  had  a  forced  circulation.  At 
the  peace  of  1815  the  banks  were  not  able  to  resume 
specie  payments,  and  the  system  of  inconvertible  paper 
money  was  persevered  in.  Imagine  then  two  hundred 
and  fortysix  classes  of  paper  money,*  circulating  side  by 
side,  having  all  degrees  of  value,  according  to  the  good 
or  bad  credit  of  the  bank  which  issued  them,  at  20 
per  cent.,  30  per  cent.,  or  50  per  cent,  discount.  Gold 
and  silver  had  entirely  disappeared ;  there  was  no  longer 
any  standard  of  price  and  value ;  the  amount  of  bills  in 
circulation  had  become  prodigious.f  To  the  bills  of  the 
banks  was  added  a  great  amount  of  individual  obligations 
of  still  less  value,  issued  by  private  persons  as  suited  their 
wants,  and  which  circulated  more  or  less  freely  in  the 

*  The  number  of  banks  at  that  time. 

t  There  was  more  paper  in  circulation  in  1816  than  in  1834,  when  the 
extent  and  value  of  business  were  very  much  greater. 


WAR  AGAINST  THE  BANK.  43 

neighbourhood.  It  was  a  frightful  scene  of  confusion,  a 
Babel,  where  all  business  became  impracticable  from  the 
utter  impossibility  of  the  parties  understanding  each  other. 
It  was  now  felt  that,  to  restore  order  in  the  bosom  of 
this  chaos,  there  was  needed  a  regulating  power,  capable 
of  commanding  confidence,  with  ample  funds  to  enable  it 
to  pay  out  specie  freely,  and  whose  presence  and,  in  case 
of  necessity,  whose  authority,  should  serve  to  recall  the 
local  banks  to  their  duty.  In  1816,  the  present  Bank  of 
the  United  States  was,  therefore,  chartered  by  Congress 
for  a  term  of  20  years,  with  a  capital  of  35  millions,  and  it 
went  into  operation  on  the  1st  of  January,  1817.  The  seat 
of  the  mother-bank  is  Philadelphia,  and  it  has  25  branches 
scattered  over  the  Union.  By  its  interference  and  assistance 
specie  payments  were  resumed  by  the  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore,  Richmond,  Norfolk  Banks  on  the  20th 
February,  1817,  and  in  course  of  time  all  the  other  Banks 
followed  the  example.  This  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments was,  first  for  the  banks  and  then  for  individuals, 
the  signal,  the  occasion,  the  rule  of  a  general  settling  up 
of  old  accounts.  As  there  had  been  much  prodigality, 
unsuccessful  speculations,  and  dead  loss,  accumulated 
through  a  period  of  20  years,  there  was  now  a  complete 
breaking  up ;  many  banks  failed?  or  suspended  their  opera- 
tions, and  from  1811  to  1830,  165  banks  were  reduced  to 
one  or  the  other  of  these  alternatives.  This  state  of  things 
lasted  three  years ;  they  were  three  years  of  crisis,  three 
years  of  suffering  for  industry,  that  is,  for  the  people  of 
the  United  States ;  for  this  people  is  identified  with  its 
commerce.  The  trials  of  this  period  have  left  a  deep  and 
lasting  impression.  Hatred  of  speculators  and  of  the 
Banking  system  has  taken  root  in  the  hearts  of  the  mass 
of  the  people,  and  now  springs  up  in  hostility  to  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  which,  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude, 
is  the  representative  of  the  system,  although  it  is  itself 


44  LETTER  III. 

innocent  of  the  mischief,  and  can  alone  prevent  its  re- 
currence. 

The  antipathy  of  the  greatest  number  against  the  banks 
has  then  a  reasonable  cause,  but  it  is  not,  therefore,  any 
the  less  blind  and  unjust.  They  see  nothing  but  abuses, 
and  shut  their  eyes  against  the  advantages.  The  great 
extension  of  credit,  which  resulted  from  the  great  number 
of  banks,  and  from  the  absence  of  all  restraint  on  their 
proceedings,  has  been  beneficial  to  all  classes,  to  the  far- 
mers and  mechanics  not  less  than  to  the  merchants.  The 
banks  have  served  the  Americans  as  a  lever  to  transfer  to 
their  soil,  to  the  general  profit,  the  agriculture  and  manu- 
factures of  Europe,  and  to  cover  their  country  with  roads, 
canals,  factories,  schools,  churches,  and,  in  a  word,  with 
every  thing  that  goes  to  make  up  civilization.  Without 
the  banks,  the  cultivator  could  not  have  had  the  first  ad- 
vances, nor  the  implements  necessary  for  the  cultivation 
of  his  farm,  and  if  the  credit  system  has  given  facilities 
for  stock-jobbing  to  speculators,  it  has  also  enabled  him, 
although  indirectly,  to  buy  at  the  rate  of  one,  two,  or 
three  dollars  an  acre,  and  to  cultivate  lands,  which  are 
now,  in  his  hands,  worth  tenfold  or  a  hundred  fold  their 
first  cost.  The  mechanics  who  attack  the  banking  sys- 
tem, forget  that  they  owe  to  it  that  growth  of  manufactu- 
ring industry,  which  has  raised  their  wages  from  one  dol- 
lar to  two  dollars  a  day.  They  forget  that  it  furnishes  the 
means  by  which  many  of  their  number  raise  themselves 
to  competence  or  wealth ;  for  in  this  country  every  enter- 
prising man,  of  a  respectable  character,  is  sure  of  obtain- 
ing credit,  and  thenceforth  his  fortune  depends  upon  his 
own  exertions.* 

*  The  mechanics  and  farmers  have  no  credit  open  at  the  banks,  but  the 
traders  from  whom  they  buy  their  tools,  implements,  raw  material,  and  pro- 
visions, haviag  that  advantage,  are  able  to  deal  with  them  on  favourable 
terms ;  the  farmer  and  mechanic  are  thus  benefitted  indirectly,  if  not  imme- 
diately, by  the  banks. 


WAR  AGAINST  THE  BANK.  45 

At  the  end  of  1819,  commerce  revived,  the  financial 
system  of  the  United  States  seemed  settled  on  a  sure 
basis.  Since  that  time,  some  shocks  have  been  felt,  as 
in  1822,  and  in  1825,  the  latter  the  reaction  of  the  great 
English  crisis,  but  in  both  cases  the  storm  soon  passed 
away.  The  root  of  the  evil  was  struck  on  the  day  that 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States  went  into  operation.  This 
great  establishment,  which  committed  some  errors  at  first 
and  paid  the  penalty,  has  for  a  long  time  been  conducted 
with  the  most  consummate  prudence.  Most  of  the  lead- 
ing commercial  men,  that  is  to  say,  most  of  the  talents,  of 
the  country  are  attached  to  it  as  directors,  and  its  foreign 
correspondents  or  associates  are  the  houses  whose  credit 
is  most  firmly  established,  such  as  the  Barings  of  London, 
and  the  Hottinguers  of  Paris.  It  exercises  the  necessary 
control  over  all  the  local  banks,  obliges  them  to  restrain  their 
emissions  by  calling  upon  them  for  specie,  or  by  refusing 
to  receive  their  bills  when  the  issues  are  excessive.  It 
was  by  its  agency  that  the  currency  of  the  United  States 
was  established  on  so  large  a  basis,  that,  in  1831,  the 
banks  were  able,  without  any  effort,  to  discount  the 
amount  of  800.000,000  dollars,  in  the  principal  cities  of 
the  Union,  or  1,100,000,000  for  the  whole  country. 

Now,  .this  state  of  prosperity  seems  to  be  coming  to  an 
end.  Here,  in  New  York,  the  banks  have  ceased  to  dis- 
count, and  on  good  paper,  for  two  or  three  months,  15,  18, 
and  24  per  cent,  per  annum  have  been  paid,  the  usual  rate 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  of  most  of  the  local 
banks,  being  6  per  cent.  At  Philadelphia,  18  per  cent, 
per  annum  has  been  given  on  excellent  paper  at  short 
dates.  At  Baltimore,  merchants  of  great  wealth  have 
been  obliged  to  stop  payment.  Nobody  buys ;  nobody 
can  sell.  Orders  for  foreign  goods  are  held  back  ;  and 
as  every  body  here  is  engaged  in  business,  this  state  of 
things  threatens  all  interests,  is  the  subject  of  all  conver- 


46  LETTER  IV. 

sations,  of  all  writing,  and  of  all  thoughts.  God  grant 
that  the  sight  of  the  impending  danger  may  calm  the  pas- 
sions, and  that  the  good  sense  of  the  community  may 
banish  empty  prejudices  and  false  fears !  God  grant  that 
both  parties  may  forget  their  mutual  animosities  in  their 
anxiety  for  the  common  welfare  !  This  should  be  our 
prayer,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  destinies  of  this  great 
nation,  but  also  because  our  silk  manufacturers  and  the 
owners  of  our  vineyards,  will  pay  a  part  of  the  expenses 
of  the  campaign  against  the  banks  in  general,  which  the 
radical  party  is  about  to  open,  by  a  mortal  contest,  with 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States. 


LETTER   IV. 
DEMOCRACY THE    BANK. 

NEW  YORK,  JANUART  11,  1834. 

THE  financial  crisis  brought  on  by  the  quarrel  between 
the  President  and  the  Bank,  has  not  become  more  serious ; 
there  is  a  great  scarcity  of  money,  that  is,  a  great  diminu- 
tion of  credit,  but  the  failures  are  not  yet  numerous  or 
considerable.  The  last  arrivals  from  Europe  have  brought 
us  the  news  that  several  of  the  trades  in  Paris  and  at 
Lyons  have  refused  to  work.  What  is  taking  place  here 
in  regard  to  the  Bank,  is  analogous  to  what  is  passing  in 
Prance  among  the  tailors,  bakers,  and  carpenters,  and 
what  occurs  daily  in  England  among  the  manufacturing 
operatives.  In  Europe,  and  particularly  in  France,  it  is 
the  rising  of  a  democracy  or  rather  a  radicalism,  which  is 


DEMOCRACY— THE  BANK.  47 

yet  in  embryo,  and  which,  if  it  please  God,  will  never 
come  to  maturity.  In  America,  it  is  the  despotic  humour 
of  a  full  grown  democracy,  passing  more  and  more  into 
radicalism,  the  longer  it  rules  without  a  rival  and  without 
a  counterpoise. 

It  seems  to  me  improbable  that  the  journeymen  carpen- 
ters, tailors,  and  bakers  of  Paris,  should  ever  give  the  law 
to  their  masters.  Among  us,  the  middling  class  (bour- 
geoisie] is  beginning  to  feel  that  it  is  its  duty  to  improve  the 
condition  of  the  working  class.  It  has  the  authority,  but 
it  is  conscious  that  the  people  has  the  physical  force. 
The  people  has  counted  its  own  ranks  and  those  of  the 
bourgeoisie,  but  it  feels  that  it  is  not  enough  to  have  the 
number  •  it  sees  that  it  has  nothing  to  expect  from  vio- 
lence, and  that  it  can  back  its  friends  only  by  improved 
habits  of  order  and  morality.  On  both  sides  their  reciprocal 
rights  are  mutually  acknowledged  ;  each  fears  and  res- 
pects the  other.  Here,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  perfectly 
natural  that  the  democracy  should  rule  the  capitalists, 
merchants,  and  manufacturers  ;  it  possesses  at  once  the 
physical  force  and  the  political  power  ;  the  middling  and 
upper  classes  inspire  it  neither  with  fear  nor  with  respect. 
The  equilibrium  is  gone ;  there  is  no  guarantee  against 
the  popular  caprice  in  the  United  States,  but  the  good 
sense  of  the  people  ;  it  must  be  allowed  that  this  good 
sense  is  quite  extraordinary,  but  it  is  not  infallible.  A 
popular  despotism  is  as  easily  deluded  by  flatterers,  as  any 
other  despotism. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  is  at  this  time  experi- 
encing the  truth  of  this  observation.  I  have  already  allu- 
ded to  some  of  the  crying  abuses  which  have  excited  a 
violent  hatred  against  the  banks  in  general,  although  with- 
out the  aid  of  the  banks  it  would  have  been  impossible 
for  the  United  States  to  have  increased  in  population, 
wealth,  and  territory  as  they  have  done.  These  abuses 


48  LETTER  IV. 

were  and  are  the  acts  of  the  local  banks,  and  not  of  the 
Mammoth  Bank.  On  the  contrary,  the  latter,  by  the  con- 
trol which  it  exercises  over  the  local  banks  for  its  own  se- 
curity, checks  and  limits  these  abuses,  if  it  does  not  com- 
pletely prevent  them.  The  legislatures  of  the  different 
States  have  been  repeatedly  called  to  deliberate  on  the 
question  of  abolishing  all  banks  and  breaking  up  the 
banking  system ;  but  they  have  generally  thought,  and 
justly,  that  the  remedy  would  be  worse  than  the  disease. 
They  have  attempted  to  cure  the  disorder  by  restrictive 
provisions  in  the  charter  of  new  banks.  The  State  of 
of  New  York,  in  1829,  embraced  the  whole  subject  in 
the  Safety-Fund  Act,  which  established  a  mutual  supervi- 
sion of  the  banks  over  each  other,  under  the  direction  of 
the  Bank  Commissioners,  and  creates  at  their  common  ex- 
pense a  safety  fund,  designed  to  indemnify  the  public  in 
case  of  the  failure  of  any  one  of  the  banks.  But  these 
measures  of  repression  or  prevention  have  generally  proved 
inefficacious,  either  from  a  defect  in  the  means  of  coer- 
cion possessed  by  the  government,  or  from  a  reluctance  to 
use  the  powers  conferred  by  the  laws. 

In  their  report  of  the  31st  of  January,  1833,  the  New 
York  Bank  Commissioners  urgently  call  the  attention  of 
the  legislature  to  the  serious  dangers  which  may  result 
from  these  institutions  as  they  are  now  organized,  parti- 
cularly in  the  country,  and  to  their  excessive  issues  in  pro- 
portion to  the  small  quantity  of  specie  in  their  vaults. 
With  two  millions  in  specie,  the  banks  of  the  State  had, 
at  that  time,  a  circulation  of  above  twelve  millions.  But 
this  report  itself  proves,  that  the  commissioners  did  not 
dare  to  fulfil  the  duties  imposed  on  them  by  the  Safety- 
Fund  act ;  they  had  the  authority  to  shut  up  the  offend- 
ing banks.  Their  warnings  have  not  prevented  the  legis- 
lature from  chartering  new  banks  by  the  dozen.  This 
year  it  will  have  to  act  on  105  petitions  for  charters,  that 


DEMOCRACY— THE  BANK.  49 

is,  eighteen  more  than  the  actual  number  of  banks  in  the 
State.  To  be  sure  in  the  present  instance,  the  let  alone 
principle  will  probably  be  violated,  for  the  Governor's 
Message  of  January  7,  1834,  urges  the  two  houses  to 
arrest  the  flood.  This  Bank  mania,  as  Jefferson  called 
it,  is  created  by  the  profits  of  banking,  which  is,  and 
more  especially  was,  before  the  institution  of  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States,  the  best  kind  of  speculation,  exactly  in 
the  ratio  of  the  abuses  attending  it.* 

In  the  local  banks,  especially  in  the  country  banks,  the 
chief  aim  of  the  president  and  directors  is,  at  all  events, 
come  what  may,  to  make  the  semi-annual  dividend  as  large 
as  possible.  By  extending  their  operations  excessively, 
they  may,  if  they  lose  the  public  confidence,  be  driven  to 
a  failure ;  but  in  the  United  States  the  prospect  of  such  a 
disaster  is  much  less  terrible  to  the  greater  number  of 
merchants,  and  even  to  the  smaller  companies,  than  it  is 
in  Europe.  (See  Note  7,  at  the  end  of  the  volume.) 
When  a  bank  fails,  there  is,  indeed,  a  great  outcry,  because 
the  number  of  victims  is  large,  and  the  loss  extends  to  all 
classes  ;  for  most  of  .the  bills  being  of  the  denomination 
of  five  dollars  and  under,  they  are  very  generally  distri- 
buted in  the  hands  of  the  labourers,  as  well  as  of  the  wealth- 
ier classes.  But  just  in  proportion  to  the  distribution  of 

*  The  dividends  of  the  Bank  of  North  America  were,  in  1792,  15  per 
cent.;  in  1793,  13  1-2;  from  1794  to  1799  inclusive,  12  per  cent.;  from  1804 
to  1810,  9  per  cent.  Those  of  the  old  Bank  of  the  United  States  varied 
from  7  5-8  to  10  per  cent.  Those  of  the  Pennsylvania  Bank,  from  1792  to 
1810,  from  8  to  10.  The  Bank  of  the  United  States  regularly  divides  7 
per  cent,  to  the  share-holders.  In  the  city  of  New  York  the  average  divi- 
dends of  the  banks  in  1832,  was  6.14  per  cent. ;  of  the  country  banks 
9  per  cent.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  legal  rate  of  interest  is 
higher  in  the  United  States  than  in  Europe  ;  it  is  6  per  cent,  in  Pennsylvania, 
7  in  New  York,  from  8  to  9  in  the  Southern  States,  and  10  in  Louisiana. 
In  the  Western  States  there  is  no  regulation  of  interest  by  law,  but  the  or- 
dinary rate  is  very  high. 
7 


50  LETTER  IV. 

the  loss  over  the  greater  number  of  persons,  is  the  quick- 
ness with  which  the  clamor  ceases.  The  president,  the 
cashier,  the  directors,  and  others  principally  interested, 
readily  find  means  to  recover  from  the  blow,  by  obtaining 
credit  elsewhere,  and  the  whole  affair  is  at  an  end. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States,  on  the  contrary, 
directed  by  men  of  large  fortune  and  established  reputation, 
connected  in  business  with  the  principal  houses  in  Europe, 
charged  with  a  vast  responsibility,  subject  to  the  super- 
vision of  the  Federal  government,  which  names  five  of 
the  directors  out  of  twenty  five,  and  officiously  watched 
by  an  army  of  journalists,  is  interested  and  obliged  to 
follow  another  course.  Not  that  it  has  not  committed 
some  errors  ;  but  it  paid  dear  for  them,  and  has  never  re- 
peated them.  Neither  are  its  rules  and  regulations  perfect ; 
the  experience  of  twenty  years  will  doubtless  suggest  some 
modifications.  But  even  its  adversaries  admit  that  it  has 
been  admirably  managed.  They  pretended,  at  first,  that 
the  public  money  was  not  safe  in  its  vaults,  but  they  are 
at  present  ashamed  to  insist  upon  this  point,  as  the  inves- 
tigation made  by  the  House  of  Representatives  proved  the 
absurdity  of  the  charge.  The  accusations  now  brought 
against  it  are  of  a  political  character. 

Politically  considered,  indeed,  the  existence  of  an  in- 
stitution so  powerful  as  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
may  present  some  inconveniences.  The  fundamental 
maxim  of  the  Federal  and  State  constitutions  is,  that  the 
supreme  authority  is  null  and  void ;  there  is  no  govern- 
ment here  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word ;  that  is,  no 
directing  power.  Each  one  is  his  own  master ;  it  is  self- 
government  in  all  its  purity.  This  anomalous  and  mon- 
strous development  of  the  individual  principle  is  no  evil 
here,  it  is  even  a  great  good  at  present ;  it  is  the  present 
stage  in  the  progress  of  the  United  States,  because  self- 
government  is  the  only  form  of  government  to  which  the 


DEMOCRACY—THE  BANK.  51 

American  character,  as  it  is,  can  accommodate  itself.  If 
individuality  had  not  free  elbow-room  here,  this  people 
would  fall  short  of  its  destiny,  which  is  to  extend  its  con- 
quests rapidly  over  an  immense  territory,  for  the  good  of 
the  whole  human  race,  to  substitute,  in  the  shortest  time 
possible,  civilization  for  the  solitude  of  the  primitive  forests, 
over  a  surface  ten  times  greater  than  all  France,  of  as  great 
average  fertility  as  that  country,  and  capable,  therefore,  of 
accommodating  350  millions  of  inhabitants. 

From  these  considerations  it  is  clear,  that  any  power 
whatsoever,  if  possessed  of  great  influence,  and  exercising 
it  over  a  great  space,  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  poli- 
tical system  of  the  country ;  for  this  reason  the  Federal 
and  State  governments  are  in  a  permanent  state  of  eclipse. 
And  it  is  furthermore  evident,  that  the  Bank,  which  is  met 
at  every  turn  as  an  agent  in  all  transactions,  which  governs 
credit,  regulates  the  currency,  animates  or  checks  at  will 
the  activity  of  commerce  by  narrowing  or  widening  the 
channels  of  circulation,  the  Bank,  which  by  its  numerous 
branches  is,  like  the  fabled  polypus,  everywhere  present, 
the  Bank  with  its  funds,  its  centralisation,  its  trusty  crea- 
tures, is  certainly  an  anomaly,  which  may  become  big  with 
danger.  One  might,  from  an  abstract,  theoretical  point  of 
view,  imagine  cases,  in  which  this  financial  colossus,  seated 
in  the  heart  of  a  country  absorbed  in  business,  would 
press  with  a  crushing  weight  on  the  liberties  of  the  people. 
If  it  were  possible  that  a  new  Monk  should  wish  to  restore 
the  English  rule,  or  that  a  new  Bonaparte,  the  saviour  of 
the  republic  in  another  Marengo,  should  attempt  to  make 
himself  dictator,  it  would  also  be  possible  that  a  conspiracy 
between  the  Bank  and  this  Monk,  or  this  Napoleon,  might 
overthrow  the  liberties  of  America.  But  such  an  event, 
possible  to  be  sure  in  theory,  (for  in  theory  nothing  is  im- 
possible,) is,  at  present,  wholly  impracticable  in  fact.  Yet 
there  are  honest  and  enlightened  men,  on  whom  this  the- 


52          •  •  LETTER  IV. 

oretical  danger  makes  more  impression,  than  the  necessity 
of  a  regulator  amidst  the  chaos  of  500  banks,  or  of  an 
agent,  which,  by  controlling  the  currency,  should  be  in 
financial  affairs,  what  the  vast  rivers  of  the  country  are  in 
the  system  of  internal  communication.  They  fear  more, 
for  this  land  of  industry,  from  the  imperceptible  tyranny 
of  the  Bank,  than  from  a  system  in  which  there  would  be 
no  check  on  the  cupidity  of  the  local  banks,  and  in  which 
they  might  renew,  with  their  paper  money,  if  not  the 
assignats  of  France,  or  the  Continental  money  of  the 
Revolution,  at  least  the  commercial  anarchy  which  followed 
the  war  of  1812. 

Unluckily  for  the  United  States,  it  is  not  on  this  high 
ground  of  foresight,  that  President  Jackson  and  his  friends 
take  their  stand  in  their  attack  on  the  Bank.  They  do 
not  say,  that  it  is  possible  that  it  may  some  time,  under  a 
new  state  of  things,  become  an  instrument  of  oppression  ; 
they  pretend  that  it  is  so  already.  According  to  them,  it 
tends  to  nothing  less  than  the  subjugation  of  the  country 
to  its  rule.  In  his  last,  annual  message,  and  in  an  official 
paper  read  to  the  cabinet  on  the  18th  of  September,  1833, 
the  President  accuses  the  Bank  :  1.  With  having  intrigued 
to  bring  up  the  question  of  the  renewal  of  its  charter  in 
Congress  during  the  session  of  1831—32,  in  order  to  reduce 
him  to  the  alternative  of  giving  his  sanction  to  the  bill,  or 
losing  the  votes  of  the  friends  of  the  Bank  in  the  approach- 
ing election,  if  he  refused  it.  He  forgets  that  he  had 
himself,  in  his  message  at  the  opening  of  that  session, 
recommended  to  Congress  to  settle  the  business.  2.  Of 
having  meddled  with  politics  in  opposing  his  election  in 
1832,  and  of  having,  with  this  purpose,  enlarged  its  loans 
and  discounts  twentyeight  and  a  half  millions.  The 
Bank  replies  that  the  statement  is  incorrect ;  that  its  books 
show,  that  its  available  means  having  been  augmented, 
between  January  and  May,  1831,  ten  millions,  and  the 


DEMOCRACY— THE  BANK.  53 

requisitions  of  commerce  having  increased,  it  had  judged 
it  expedient  to  extend  its  credits  seventeen  and  a  half 
millions,  so  that  the  actual  extension  of  its  operations  was 
only  four  and  a  half  millions.  3.  Of  having  attempted  to 
corrupt  the  public  press,  either  by  printing  a  great  number 
of  pamphlets,  or  by  gaining  over  the  newspapers.  The 
Bank  answers  to  this  charge,  that  it  has  a  perfect  right  to 
defend  itself  by  the  press,  against  the  continual  attacks 
upon  it  to  which  the  press  gives  currency,  that  it  may 
certainly  be  allowed  to  reprint  the  speeches  delivered  in 
its  favor  in  Congress,  or  essays  in  which  questions  of  bank- 
ing are  luminously  treated,  such  as  that  by  the  celebrated 
Mr  Gallatin,  who  was  twelve  years  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  afterward  minister  to  France.  As  to  the 
vague  imputation  of  attempting  to  corrupt  a  press,  which 
pours  forth  such  a  number  of  journals  as  the  press  of  the 
United  States,  (see  Note  8,  at  the  end  of  the  volume,)  it 
does  not  deserve  a  serious  answer. 

If  a  European  government,  from  motives  of  this  char- 
acter, on  facts  thus  destitute  of  proof,  should  attempt  to 
destroy  an  institution  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
country,  the  cry  of  despotism  would  be  raised  on  all  sides. 
If  the  state  were  itself  interested  in  the  institution  to  the 
amount  of  one  fifth  of  its  capital  (7  millions  of  dollars), 
mariy  persons  would  charge  such  an  attempt  not  only 
with  violence,  but  with  folly.  In  the  United  States  the 
numerical  majority,  which  is  the  majority  of  electors, 
applauded  General  Jackson's  campaign  against  the  Bank 
almost  as  enthusiastically  as  his  campaign  at  New  Orleans. 
The  military  success  of  General  Jackson,  his  honesty,  his 
iron  firmness,  have  given  him  an  astonishing  popularity. 
The  Bank,  on  the  contrary,  in  spite  of  its  daily  services, 
(see  Note  9,  at  the  end  of  the  volume,)  is  unpopular ;  it  is 
.so  on  account  of  the  popular  hatred  of  the  Banking  System, 
on  account  of  that  jealousy,  which,  in  a  land  of  perfect 


54  LETTER  IV. 

equality  and  suspicious  democracy,  follows  in  the  steps  of 
wealth  and  pomp ;  it  is  so  because  its  extensive  privileges 
shock  all  republican  feelings.  In  the  United  States,  in 
spite  of  the  general  habits  and  laws  of  equality,  there  is  a 
sort  of  aristocracy  founded  on  knowledge  or  on  commer- 
cial distinction.  This  aristocracy,  somewhat  prone  to  en- 
tertain a  contempt,  for  the  vulgar  multitude,  causes  a  strong 
reaction  against  itself  in  the  popular  mind,  and  as  it  sup- 
ports the  Bank  by  its  influence  and  its  writings,  this  is 
enough,  of  itself,  to  set  the  pure  democracy  against  the 
institution.  Add  to  this,  that  the  Bank,  irritated  by  the 
hostile  demonstrations  of  the  administration,  has  sometimes 
answered  it  by  angry  acts  of  reprisal,  not  grave  in  them- 
selves, but  unfortunate  in  their  consequences,  and  of  which 
its  adversaries  have  adroitly  availed  themselves  to  excite 
the  popular  passions.  Although  the  Bank  has  the  majority 
of  the  Senate  in  its  favor,  the  chances  are  now  against  it. 
Unless  the  multitude,  which  now  shouts  HURRAH  FOR 
JACKSON  !  without  reflection,  shall  be  led,  between  this 
and  March,  1836,  when  its  charter  expires,  to  reflect  seri- 
ously on  the  matter,  it  will  disappear,  until  a  new  experi- 
ence shall  again  prove  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  along 
without  it. 

Thus,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  English  Reform 
ministry  is  renewing  the  charter  and  confirming  the  priv- 
ileges of  the  Bank  of  England,  with  the  approbation  of  all 
Europe,  here  a  compact  mass,  in  which,  indeed,  the  en- 
lightened do  not  form  the  majority,  but  in  which,  notwith- 
standing, some  are  included,  deals  the  death-blow  to  a 
similar  institution,  tried  and  proved  by  long  services. 
Thus,  while  one  of  the  greatest,  perhaps,  in  an  economical 
point  of  view,  the  Very  greatest  of  the  benefits  which 
France  could  receive,  would  be  the  establishment  of  a 
system  of  banks,  connected  with  each  other  as  the  twenty 
branches  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  are  with  the 


MOVEMENT  OP  PARTIES.  55 

mother  bank,  America  is  about  to  witness,  if  not  the 
death,  at  least  the  suspension  of  an  institution,  that  has 
been  fruitful  of  so  much  good,  without  the  slightest  im- 
mediate loss  of  popularity  by  those  who  are  doing  the 
work  of  destruction.  So  goes  the  world  in  the  United 
States.  The  history  of  this  affair  shows  that  the  poli- 
tical springs  are  here  wholly  different  from  those  that  ope- 
rate in  Europe,  and  that  nevertheless,  intrigue  and  petty 
hate  have  free  course  here  as  well  as  elsewhere. 


LETTER  V. 

MOVEMENT  OF   PARTIES. BANK   QUESTION. 

PHILADELPHIA,  JAN.  5,  1834. 

OF  all  the  cities  of  the  Union,  the  peaceful  Philadelphia 
is  the  most  disturbed  by  the  Bank  question,  because  it  is 
the  seat  of  the  mother  bank.  •  The  State  of  Pennsylvania 
also,  of  all  the  States,  suffers  the  most  from  the  financial 
crisis,  because  it  is  the  most  deeply  in  debt,  and  is  obliged 
to  borrow  more,  either  to  finish  its  canals  and  railroads,  or 
to  pay  the  interest  on  its  existing  debt.  Conceive  of  the 
situation  of  a  State,  whose  population  amounts  to  only 
1,500,000  souls,  loaded  with  a  debt  of  twenty  and  a  half 
millions,  whose  ordinary  expenditures  are  less  than  600,000 
dollars,  but  which  must  raise  one  million  to  pay  interest 
already  accrued,  and  nearly  two  millions  and  a  half,  for 
the  next  summer,  under  penalty  of  seeing  her  great  works, 
executed  at  an  enormous  expense,  go  to  ruin,  and  who 
knows  not  whither  to  turn.  This  is  not.  all  ;  some  old 


56  LETTER  V. 

loans  must  be  reimbursed  next  May,  or  in  three  months,  and, 
to  crown  the  whole,  the  capitalists  who  contracted  last 
year  for  a  loan  of  three  millions,  to  be  employed  on  the 
public  works,  are,  in  consequence  of  the  present  crisis, 
unable  to  fulfil  their  contracts.  The  local  banks,  which 
are  bound  by  their  charters  to  lend  the  State  at  the  rate  of 
5  per  cent.,  rather  stand  in  need  of  assistance  themselves. 
To  these  public  embarrassments  is  added  the  private  dis- 
tress, and  thus  this  country,  which  Cobbett,  who  always 
shows  talent,  and  occasionally  gleams  of  good  sense,  dubs 
the  Anti-Malthusian,  exhibits  for  the  present  the  spectacle 
of  a  superabundance  of  labourers.  In  the  manufacturing 
districts  of  Pennsylvania,  many  of  the  operatives  are  with- 
out work. 

The  condition  of  the  rest  of  the  country  is  not,  in  gen- 
eral, any  more  favorable.  I  am  very  ready  to  believe  that 
the  Anti-Jackson  newspapers,  for  so  they  call  themselves, 
exaggerate  the  distress  ;  but  making  all  due  allowance  for 
rhetorical  flourishes,  it  is  still  undeniable  that  there  is 
much  distress,  especially  among  the  commercial  class. 
Bare  figures  are  more  eloquent  than  the  best  advocates  of 
the  Bank,  and  it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  excellent  paper 
has  been  discounted  at  the  rate  of  18  per  cent,  per  annum, 
and  at  even  higher  rates,  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
Baltimore.  The  price  currents  and  the  state  of  the  stock- 
market,  show  a  general  fall  in  prices  of  15,  20,  30,  and 
even  40  per  cent.  Thus  far  the  efforts  of  the  President 
to  fell  the  hydra  of  the  moneyed  aristocracy,  the  Mammoth, 
the  Monster,  have  had  no  other  effect  than  to  blast  credit 
and  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  country  ;  for  the 
Bank  has  been  administered  with  so  much  ability,  espe- 
cially since  the  presidency  of  Mr  Biddle,  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  men  in  the  country,  that  notwithstanding 
the  abrupt  removal  of  the  public  deposits,  notwithstanding 
the  unexpected  and  unfair  assaults  upon  some  of  the 


MOVEMENT  OF  PARTIES.  57 

branches,  particularly  that  of  Savannah*,  it  is  beyond  com- 
parison the  most  solvent  and  safe  of  all  the  financial  institu- 
tions in  the  Union.  At  this  critical  moment  it  has  as 
much  specie  (ten  millions)  as  all  the  other  500  banks 
taken  together,  and  I  know  from  good  authority,  that 
many  Jackson  men  (this  is  the  epithet  adopted  by  them- 
selves), have  been  very  glad  to  be  sprinkled  with  a  few 
drops  of  the  venom  of  this  dangerous  reptile. 

If  what  is  now  taking  place  in  this  country  were  to 
occur  in  any  European  monarchy,  those  persons  who  in- 
sist upon  all  nations  having  a  government  cast  in  the  re- 
publican mould,  whatever  may  be  the  condition  of  their 
territory  and  population,  their  wealth  and  knowledge, 
their  character  and  manners,  would  not  fail  to  make  it  the 
text  of  their  harangues  against  monarchical  governments  ; 
holding  up  to  view  the  picture  of  an  unparallelled  com- 
mercial prosperity,  checked  of  a  sudden  by  the  caprice  of 
the  sovereign,  they  would  prove  that  such  is  one  of  the 
unavoidable  consequences  of  an  opposition  between  the 
interest  of  the  ruler  and  the  welfare  of  the  nation  ;  they 
would  demonstrate  by  geometrical  syllogisms,  that  it  is  the 
essence  of  monarchy  to  place  authority  in  the  hands  of  the 
weak  and  the  foolish,  who,  to  gratify  their  personal  malice, 
would  not  hesitate  to  hazard  the  happiness  of  millions. 
They  would  raise  the  cry  of  secret  influence,  of  intrigue, 
which,  according  to  them,  is  one  of  the  attributes  of 
monarchies.  Unluckily  for  this  theory,  it  is  belied  by 
facts  under  my  own  eyes,  in  the  most  thorough  and 

*  The  Savannah  branch  had  out  only  500,000  dollars  in  bills.  The  collector 
of  the  port  accumulated  them,  as  they  were  received  for  customs  duties,  and 
one  day  a  broker  presented  himself  at  the  counter  with  380,000  dollars  in 
bills,  for  which  he  demanded  specie  ;  but  the  disappearance  of  the  bills  of 
the  branch  from  circulation  had  not  been  unnoticed,  and  funds  had  been 
provided  for  any  exigency.  Payment  was,  therefore,  instantly  made,  and 
the  broker,  not  knowing  what  to  do  with  so  much  specie,  was  obliged  to  re- 
quest the  cashier  to  receive  it  in  deposit. 

8  . 


58  LETTER  V. 

flourishing  republic  that  has  ever  existed.  The  selfish- 
ness of  royalty,  or  more  correctly  speaking  of  courts,  has 
hitherto  begot  much  mischief  and  will  continue  to  do  so 
in  future ;  but  it  has  met  with  its  match  in  the  bosom 
of  republics,  and  above  all  under  a  system  of  absolute 
equality,  which  distributes  political  power  in  absolutely 
equal  quantities  to  the  intelligent  and  the  ignorant,  to  the 
most  eminent  merchant  and  author,  and  the  brutal  and 
drunken  peasant  of  Ireland,  who  is  but  just  enrolled  in 
the  list  of  citizens.  An  absolute  people,  as  well  as  an 
absolute  king,  may  reject  for  a  time  the  lessons  of  experience 
and  the  councils  of  wisdom  ;  a  people  as  well  as  a  king,  may 
have  its  courtiers.  A  people  on  the  throne,  whose  author- 
ity is  limited  by  no  checks,  may  blindly  and  recklessly 
espouse  the  quarrels  of  the  minions  of  the  day ;  let  those 
who  doubt  it  come  here  and  see  it.  Ignorance  of  the  true 
interests  of  the  country  is  not  the  exclusive  prerogative  of 
monarchies.  The  official  papers  of  the  Federal  Executive 
in  the  affair  of  the  Bank,  so  far  as  concerns  a  knowledge 
of  the  principles  of  government  and  the  springs  of  the 
public  welfare,  are  on  a  level  with  the  measures  of  the 
government  of  Spain  or  Rome.  And  yet  this  Executive 
is  the  creature  of  the  popular  choice  in  the  largest  sense. 
It  is  not  merely  in  monarchies,  that  a  dancer  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  post  that  belongs  to  a  mathematician.  The  camarilla  \ 
Never  have  I  heard  it  so  much  talked  about,  as  since  I  have 
been  in  this  country.  It  is  here  called  the  Kitchen  Cabinet, 
and  admitting  a  fourth  of  what  is  said  by  the  opposition 
to  be  true,  it  is  difficult  not  to  believe  that  its  influence 
upon  public  affairs  is  greater  than  that  of  the  ministerial 
cabinet. 

But  to  return  to  the  Bank.  Congress  met  on  the  3d  of 
December ;  and  most  of  the  State  Legislatures  are  now 
in  session.  Every  where,  and  above  all  in  Congress,  the 
great,  not  to  say  the  only  question  agitated,  is  that  of  the 


MOVEMENT  OF  PARTIES.  59 

Bank.  The  subject  of  the  discussions  is  the  removal  of 
the  public  deposits,  which  the  President  has  withdrawn 
from  the  Bank  after  a  military  fashion,  having  previously, 
in  the  same  spirit,  removed  from  office  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  Mr  Duane,  who,  although  opposed  to  the  Bank, 
considered  the  President's  course  illegal  and  rash.  Thus 
far,  the  manifestations  of  public  opinion  and  the  delibera- 
tive assemblies  are  extremely  various  and  discordant.  In 
New  Jersey,  a  small  and  unimportant  State,  the  Assembly 
has  adopted,  by  a  large  majority,  resolutions  approving  the 
acts  of  the  administration,  and  instructing  its  delegates  in 
Congress  to  support  the  President ;  notwithstanding  which, 
Mr  Southard,  one  of  the  Senators  from  that  State,  has 
made  an  excellent  speech  on  the  other  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. The  Assembly  of  New  York,  the  first  State  in 
wealth  and  population,  has  adopted  similar  resolutions  by 
a  vote  of  118  to  9.  Some  persons  to  be  sure,  assert  that  this 
is  because  New  York  would  like  to  have  the  Mother  Bank.* 
The  youthful  State  of  Ohio,  whose  growth  borders  on  the 
miraculous  (it  now  contains  eleven  hundred  thousand  in- 
habitants, although  but  50  years  ago  it  had  not  six  thou- 
sand), Ohio,  the  Benjamin  of  the  democracy,  has  strongly 
expressed  the  same  wishes.  The  little  State  of  Maine 
has  done  the  same.  The  administration  party  lately  had 
a  brilliant  opportunity  of  displaying  its  sympathies  and  its 
hatred.  The  8th  of  January,  the  anniversary  of  the  bat- 
tle of  New  Orleans,  was  celebrated  by  innumerable  public 
dinners,  at  each  of  which  numerous  toasts  were  drank. 
President  Jackson  was  the  hero,  and  the  Bank  was  the 
scape-goat,  of  the  day.  It  would  be  impossible  to  imagine 
the  flood  of  accusations,  insults,  and  threats,  which  was 

*  New  York  is  the  chief  seat  of  commerce,  but  Philadelphia  is  more  cen- 
tral, and  is,  besides,  the  city  of  American  capitalists.  The  removal  to  New 
York  would  also  require  the  transference  of  the  mint  and  some  other  public 
offices  to  that  city,  at  great  expense. 


60  LETTER  V. 

poured  upon  it,  mingled  with  jests  in  the  taste  of  the 
country  upon  Mr  Diddle ;  thus,  at  one  of  these  dinners, 
the  Bank  was  toasted,  as  being  governed  by  Young  Nick 
according  to  the  principles  of  Old  Nick. , 

But  the  population  of  New  England,  particularly  that 
of  Massachusetts,  is  opposed  to  the  administration.  In 
Virginia  the  same  opinions  seems  to  prevail,  and  it  is  the 
same  with  several  of  the  old  Southern  States.  The  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers  of  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  Boston,  and  a  hundred  other  places,  have  held 
meetings  and  adopted  resolutions,  strongly  censuring  the 
conduct  of  the  government  towards  the  Bank,  and  accu- 
sing it  of  having  caused  the  present  crisis.  Most  of  the 
Philadelphia  Banks  have  petitioned  in  favor  of  the  Bank. 
Several  Banks  at  Boston  and  in  Virginia  have  refused  to 
take  the  public  money  in  deposit ;  those  of  Charleston 
have  been  unanimous  in  this  measure.  The  majority  of 
persons  of  intelligence,  experience,  and  moderation,  and 
most  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers,  are  in  favour 
of  the  Bank.  The  country,  particularly  in  the  Middle 
and  Western  States,  and  the  operatives  in  the  towns,  go 
for  General  Jackson. 

In  Congress  the  majority  of  the  Senate  is  friendly  to 
the  Bank,  and  the  majority  of  the  House  is  on  the  side  of 
the  Administration.  The  superiority  in  debate  belongs 
to  the  defenders  of  the  Bank.  In  the  Senate,  the  three 
greatest  statesmen  in  the  country,  Messrs  Clay,  Webster, 
and  Calhoun,  are  on  this  side  of  the  question,  and  the 
speeches  of  Messrs  Clay  and  Calhoun  have  made  a  strong 
impression.  In  the  House  Mr  Binney,  of  Philadelphia, 
and  Mr  McDuffie  have  pleaded  the  same  cause  with 
ability.  On  the  other  side  there  has  been  more  highflown 
declamation  than  reasoning.  I  have  been  struck  with  the 
resemblance  between  most  of  the  speeches  and  newspaper 
essays  directed  against  the  Bank,  and  our  republican  tirades 


MOVEMENT  OP  PARTIES.  61 

of  1791  and  1792.     There  are  the  same  declamatory  tone, 
the  same  swollen  style,  the  same  appeal  to  the  popular  pas- 
sions, with  this  difference,  that  the  allegations  made  here 
are  vague,  empty,  and  indefinite,  while  with  us  fifty  years 
ago  the  grievances  were  real.     Most  generally  the  pictures 
.  presented  in  these  declamations,  are  fantastical  delineations 
of  the  moneyed  aristocracy  overrunning  the  country  with 
seduction,  corruption,  and  slavery  in  its  train  ;    or  of  Mr 
Biddle  aiming  at  the  crown.  Amidst  this  swarm  of  speeches 
and  essays,  one  hardly  ever  meets  with  any  indications  of 
serious  study  or  a   tolerable  knowledge  of  the  subject ; 
but  I  have  been  struck  with  the  speech  of  Mr  Cambre- 
leng,   who  has   put  forth   some    prudent   suggestions  as 
to  the  reforms  required  in  the  present  system  of  banking. 
For  it  must  be  confessed,  that  this  animosity  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  body  of  the  people  against  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  blind  and  unreasonable  as  it  is,  is  founded  on 
a  real  necessity,  namely,  that  of  a  complete  reorganization 
of  the  banking   system.      When  Congress  renewed  the 
charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  without  modifi- 
cation, in  1832,  it  committed  an  error.      It  should  have 
seized  this  opportunity  to  place  the  currency  of  the  coun- 
try on  a  more  solid  basis  ;  and  if  General  Jackson  had 
abode  by  the  terms  of  his  veto  message,  in  which  he  de- 
clared that  he  was  not  opposed  in  principle  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  National  Bank,  but  that  the  present  Bank 
could  not  be  retained  without  some  modification,  he  might 
have  become  the  benefactor  of  his  country.     He  would 
not,  indeed,  have  received  Cobbett's  congratulations,  but 
he  would  have  obtained  the  approbation  of  all  statesmen 
and  men  of  sense  in  the  Old  and  the  New  World.     How- 
ever, whatever  his  friends  may  say,  as  the  President  did 
not  foresee  the  distress,  which  has  befallen  American  com- 
merce, and  as  nobody  can  doubt  his  patriotism,  we  need 
need  not  yet  despair  of  seeing  him  adopt  this  wise  course. 


62  LETTER  V. 

The  present  crisis  abundantly  proves  the  wretched  con- 
dition of  the  currency,  for  the  original  cause  of  it  was 
qu4te  slight ;  it  was  merely  the  transfer  from  the  vaults  of 
one  bank  to  those  of  another  of  ten  millions,  an  inconsid- 
erable sum  relatively  to  the  amount  of  the  business  of  the 
country.  If  the  local  banks,  in  spite  of  the  control  exer- 
cised by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  had  not  previously 
passed  all  bounds,  they  would  have  been  able,  when  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  was  obliged  to  contract  its  dis- 
counts by  the  withdrawing  of  the  public  money,  to  have 
enlarged  their  own  in  the  same  proportion,  since  those 
same  funds  were  transferred  to  their  vaults.  But  the  frame- 
work of  these  banks  is  so  badly  put  together,  that  it  shakes 
at  the  slightest  breath.  The  slight  motion  in  the  political  and 
commercial  atmosphere  caused  by  the  President's  blow  at 
the  Bank,  in  removing  the  public  deposits,  was  enough  to 
make  them  totter.  They  are  like  a  colossus  with  clay  feet, 
which  should  have  feet  of  gold,  or  in  other  words,  specie 
in  their  vaults. 

The  proportion  of  metals,  of  which  we  have  an  excess 
in  France,  is  here  extremely  small.  In  many  States, 
among  others  New  York,  there  is  an  enormous  quantity  of 
bills  of  one,  two,  and  three  dollars.  In  South  Carolina 
there  are  25  cent,  and  even  12  1-2  cent  bills.  In  Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia,  and  some  other  States,  there  are  none 
of  less  than  five  dollars.  The  Bank  of  the  United  States 
emits  none  of  less  than  that  sum  ;  but  this  minimum  is 
too  low.  Most  political  economists,  and  particularly  the 
English,  lay  it  down  as  an  axiom,  that  the  most  perfect 
money  is  paper ;  this  is  true,  if  we  suppose  a  nation  in 
which  any  disturbance  of  industry,  in  consequence  or 
apprehension  of  war,  from  foolish  speculations,  from  glut 
or  panic,  is  impossible.  In  such  a  land  of  cockayne,  such 
a  terrestrial  paradise,  an  unshaken  confidence  would  pre- 
vail in  all  transactions,  and  consolidate  all  interests.  The 


MOVEMENT  OF  PARTIES.  63 

metals  would  only  serve  to  strike  medals  and  to  preserve 
inscriptions  intended  to  commemorate  this  ineffable  bliss. 
Paper  would  there  be  on  a  par  with  gold,  and  even  higher, 
as  some  English  writers  have  maintained  it  should  be.  I 
do  not  know  if  there  will  ever  be  a  nation  in  such  a  state 
of  heavenly  happiness ;  but  I  doubt  it,  because  in  the 
world  of  finance,  as  well  as  in  the  world  of  passion,  I 
consider  the  Tender  River  a  fable,  and  pastorals  a  sport  of 
fancy ;  but  it  is  very  evident  that  no  such  people  exists 
now,  or  will  for  some  time  to  come.  Now  in  the  United 
States,  the  present  banking  system,  like  that  of  England 
from  1797  to  1821,  or  even  1825,  is  founded  on  this  the- 
ory of  the  most  perfect  money.  It  is  provided,  indeed, 
that  the  banks  shall  pay  gold  for  their  paper  on  demand  ; 
but  by  the  side  of  this  clause,  which  tends  to  keep  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  the  metals  in  the  country,  is  inserted 
another,  which  neutralises  it ;  it  is  the  power  of  emitting 
bills  in  any  number,  and  of  the  sum  of  1,  2,  3,  or  5  dol- 
lars. In  prosperous  times,  the  emission  of  paper  is  abun- 
dant, indefinite ;  as  the  necessity  of  a  metallic  standard 
ceases  to  be  felt,  in  proportion  to  the  confidence  which 
prevails,  the  metals  disappear  before  the  excess  of  paper  ; 
there  is  scarcely  any  left  in  the  country.  Since  I  have 
been  in  the  United  States,  I  have  not  seen  a  piece  of  gold 
except  in  the  mint.  No  sooner  is  it  struck  off,  than  the 
gold  is  exported  to  Europe  and  melted  down.  When  a 
crisis  comes  on,  the  demand  for  the  precious  metals  in- 
creases rapidly,  because  every  one  attaches  more  value  to 
a  positive  standard  than  to  paper,  and  the  later  the  appli- 
cation of  the  remedy  for  the  scarcity  of  metals,  the  longer 
does  the  crisis  last,  and  the  more  serious  does  it  become. 

In  a  new  country,  where  capital  cannot,  of  course,  be 
abundant,  for  capital  of  all  kinds,  whether  of  articles  of 
food  or  precious  metals,  is  the  accumulated  produce  of 
labour,  it  is  natural,  that  the  proportion  of  paper  money 


64  LETTER  V. 

should  equal  and  surpass  that  of  metallic  money.  The 
existence  of  paper  money  is  even  a  great  benefit  to  any 
country.  In  France  we  have  the  enormous  sum  of  600 
million  dollars  in  specie  ;  (see  Note  10,  at  the  end  of  the 
volume) ;  in  the  United  States  40  millions  are  sufficient 
for  all  the  transactions  of  a  commerce  nearly  as  extensive 
as  our  own.  In  England  the  amount  of  specie  at  present 
does  not  exceed  220  millions,  mostly  in  gold.  Bank  notes 
in  circulation,  which  constitute  the  rest  of  the  currency, 
amount  at  this  time,  in  the  United  States,  to  100  million, 
that  is,  two  and  a  half  times  the  amount  of  specie ;  in 
England  to  about  the  same  as  the  specie,  which  gives  for 
the  whole  circulation  of 

The  United  States,  140  millions — 
Of  England,  440  millions. 

If  we  had  in  France  the  industrial  habits  of  the  English 
and  Anglo-Americans,  200  millions  of  circulating  medium, 
half  in  paper  and  half  in  specie,  would  probably  be  suffi- 
cient for  our  operations ;  but  considering  our  commercial 
inferiority,  suppose  that  we  should  require  300  millions,  of 
which  two  thirds  should  be  metallic,  and  one  third  paper, 
it  would  follow  that  we  might  advantageously  employ 
400  millions,  which  are  now  unproductive  in  the  form  of 
specie,  and  which  add  nothing  to  our  pleasures,  our  com- 
fort, or  our  industrial  capacity.  But  if  we  might  expect 
great  benefit  from  banks  of  circulation  and  the  paper  which 
they  would  issue,  it  is  evident  that  the  Americans,  in  the 
present  stage  of  their  wealth,  and  considering  their  actual 
capital,  would  find  their  advantage  in  putting  some  check 
upon  themselves  in  this  matter.  It  might  then  be  proper 
to  raise  the  minimum  of  bills  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  to  10,  15,  or  20  dollars,  as  in  England  there  is  no 
paper  less  than  the  five  pound  note.  The  National  Bank, 
if  it  were  powerful  enough,  would  keep  the  local  banks  in 
check,  and  for  this  reason  it  is  expedient  to  increase  the 


MOVEMENT  OF  PARTIES.  65 

capital.  There  would  then  be  specie  enough  in  the  coun- 
try for  all  purposes  less  than  the  paper  minimum,  and  in 
case  of  any  disturbance,  the  currency  would  be  less  readily 
deranged. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  point  in  which  the  charter  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  requires  modification  ;  its  rela- 
tions with  the  Federal  government,  as  well  as  with  the 
State  governments,  need  to  be  modified  ;  and  some  projects 
worthy  of  consideration,  in  this  view,  have  been  broached. 
It  would  also,  probably,  be  expedient,  as  Mr  Cambreleng 
has  remarked,  to  change  the  rules  and  regulations  relating 
to  private  and  public  deposits,  and  to  provide  that  in  future 
they  should  bear  interest  as  they  do  in  the  Scotch  banks. 
If  this  system  were  adopted  by  all  the  American  banks, 
they  would  gain  in  solidity,  and  they  would  embrace  the 
interest  of  all  classes,  and  become  provident  institutions 
for  the  general  good ;  while  at  present  their  direct  profits, 
the  dividends,  fall  exclusively  to  the  shareholders,  who 
belong  to  the  wealthier  classes ;  a  fact  which  contributes 
not  a  little  to  their  unpopularity.  Finally,  it  would  be 
proper  to  consider  to  what  degree  the  immediate  advantages 
of  credit  might  be  extended  to  mechanics  and  farmers.  In 
this  respect  the  banks  are  yet  absolutely  aristocratical  in- 
stitutions, the  Americans  having  preserved  in  banking 
almost  all  the  usages  of  their  ancestors,  the  English.  The 
American  banks  are  now  chiefly  devoted  to  the  use  of 
speculators  and  merchants. 

In  the  midst  of  so  many  contradictions,  "it  is  difficult  to 
foresee  what  will  be  the  issue  of  the  struggle.  The 
friends  of  the  Administration  maintain  that  President 
Jackson  and  Vice  President  Van  Buren  are  not  only  op- 
posed to  the  Bank  as  it  is,  but  to  any  National  '  Bank,  and 
that  they  will  never  yield.  The  Globe,  the  avowed  organ 
of  the  President,  has  told  Mr  Clay,  that  unless  he  can  find 
a  Brutus  (to  assassinate  General  Jackson,)  the  Bank  will 
9 


66  LETTER  V. 

neither  have  the  deposits  nor  a  new  charter.  We  may 
doubt,  however,  whether  the  President's  mind  is  so  deci- 
sively made  up,  and  after  all  a  majority  of  both  houses 
can  set  at  nought  the  veto.  As  to  the  Vice  President, 
whom  his  opponents  call  the  cunning  Van  Buren,  as  he 
aspires  to  succeed  the  President,  many  persons  declare  that 
his  object  is  to  gain  the  vote  of  the  powerful  State  of  New 
York,  by  transferring  thither  the  seat  of  the  Mother  Bank, 
but  that  he  is  too  enlightened  seriously  to  wish  the  de- 
struction of  an  institution  fraught  with  so  much  good  to 
the  country. 

However  this  may  be,  it  would  be  surprising  if  the 
present  crisis  were  not  followed,  sooner  or  later,  by  a 
reaction  in  favour  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  with 
suitable  modifications,  or  of  another  National  Bank,  which, 
as  Mr  Webster  observed,  would  amount  to  the  same  thing, 
if  the  shareholders  of  the  present  Bank  are  not  sacrificed. 
The  jealous  democracy  of  this  country  has  this  advantage 
over  other  democracies,  that  in  the  main  it  has  much  good 
sense ;  the  recollection  of  old  sufferings  caused  by  the 
abuses  of  the  banking  system,  and  a  jealousy  of  all  pre- 
tensions to  superiority,  have  led  it  to  give  ear  to  much 
noisy  declamation  about  the  aristocracy  of  money,  partic- 
ularly when  it  has  been  mixed  up  with  flattery  of  itself. 
It  may  have  been  led  astray  for  a  moment,  when  its  own 
prerogatives  were  the  subject  of  discussion,  as  those  sov- 
ereigns who  assert  the  divine  right  of  kings,  take  fire  in 
respect  to  theirs.  Proud  of  its  gigantic  labours,  it  may 
have  been  tempted  to  believe,  that  to  it  everything  was 
possible  and  easy,  that  it  had  only  to  frown  to  cause  the 
Bank  to  crumble  into  the  dust  at  its  feet,  without  being 
itself  shaken  by  the  shock.  But  facts,  positive,  inexorable 
facts  now  bear  witness  that  it  was  mistaken,  that  it  has  trust- 
ed too  much  to  its  powers  and  its  star,  that  the  agency  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  is  indispensable.  The  influence 


MOVEMENT  OF  PARTIES.  67 

of  facts  has  spread  step  by  step  even  to  the  country  people, 
who  no  longer  find  buyers  of  their  produce.  The  argument 
is  palpable  and  effectual ;  passion  cannot  long  blind  men  of 
sense  to  such  facts,  for  men  of  sense  are  those  who  do  not 
give  themselves  up  implicitly  to  abstractions,  and  who 
admit  that  every  theory  which  is  point  blank  against  fact, 
is  false  or  incomplete.  This  is  the  reason  why  good  sense 
is  worth  to  the  full  as  much  in  politics,  as  talents. 

It  is  worth  while  to  observe  here,  that  all  the  political 
difficulties  in  which  the  United  States  have  become  in- 
volved, and  which  have  threatened  the  existence  of  the 
Union  itself,  have  been  settled  by  means  of  what  are  here 
called  compromises,  and  in  France  justes-mili&ux.  Thus 
was  ended  the  serious  dispute  on  the  Missouri  question, 
which  had  well  nigh  set  the  Union  in  a  flame.  It  was 
made  a  question  whether  Missouri  should  be  received  into 
the  Confederacy  with  a  constitution  sanctioning  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery.  After  a  long  and  ineffectual  debate, 
Mr  Clay  moved  that  Missouri  should  be  admitted  uncon- 
ditionally, but  that,  at  the  same  time,  it  should  be  declared 
that  in  future  no  new  State  lying  north  of  36°  30'  of  lati- 
tude, should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  with  this  institu- 
tion ;  this  proposition  was  received  with  general  favour, 
and  the  admission  of  Missouri  was  carried.  In  the  next 
session,  however,  a  new  quarrel  arose  between  the  North 
and  the  South,  more  violent  and  bitter  than  the  former,  in 
relation  to  an  article  in  the  constitution  of  Missouri,  pro- 
hibiting any  free  man  of  colour  from  entering  the  State. 
Another  compromise,  proposed  by  Mr  Clay,  finally  settled 
the  whole  question  in  1821,  after  it  had  kept  the  country 
in  a  flame  for  three  years.  In  1833,  another  compromise 
was  made  in  respect  to  the  tariff,  the  honour  of  which  also 
belongs  to  Mr  Clay.  This  question  will  sooner  or  later  be 
settled  in  the  same  manner  j  the  Union  cannot  do  without 
a  National  Bank,  and  it  will  have  one. 


68  LETTER  V. 

There  are  some  lucky  persons  who  succeed  in  every- 
thing, and  there  are  some  lucky  nations  with  whom  every- 
thing turns  out  well,  even  those  events  which  seemed 
about  to  bury  them  in  ruins.  The  United  States  is  one 
of  these  privileged  communities.  When  Villeroi  came 
back  to  Versailles,  after  his  defeat,  Louis  XIV.  said  to 
him,  "Marshal,  nobody  is  lucky  at  our  time  of  life." 
Charles  V.  also,  as  he  grew  old,  said  that  fortune  was  like 
a  woman,  and  preferred  young  men  to  old  ones.  Louis 
and  Charles  were  right  so  far  as  this,  that  when  a  man, 
young  or  old,  has  finished  his  mission,  foresight,  ability, 
and  perseverance  profit  him  little  ;  he  fails  in  whatever 
he  undertakes,  whilst  he  who  has  a  mission  yet  to  fulfil, 
takes  new  strength  from  the  most  violent  blows.  This  is 
true  of  nations  as  well  as  of  individuals.  The  American 
people  is  a  young  people,  which  has  a  mission  to  perform  ; 
nothing  less  than  to  redeem  a  world  from  savage  forests, 
panthers,  and  bears.  It  moves  with  mighty  strides  to- 
wards its  object,  for  it  has  not,  like  the  nations  of  Europe, 
the  burden  of  a  heavy  past  on  its  shoulders.  It  may  be 
checked  in  its  career  for  a  time  by  the  present  crisis,  but 
it  will  come  out  of  it  safe  and  sound,  and  more  healthy 
than  when  it  entered  it.  It  will  come  out  with  increased 
resources,  with  a  reformed  banking  system,  and  according 
to  all  appearances,  even  with  an  improved  National  Bank. 
May  the  nations  of  Europe  not  have  to  wait  long  for  in- 
stitutions, which  have  so  powerfully  assisted  England  and 
America  in  their  progress ! 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE.  69 


LETTER   VI. 
PROGRESS  OF  THE   STRUGGLE. NEW  POWERS. 

BALTIMORE,  MARCH  1,  1834. 

FAILURES  begin  to  be  frequent  in  the  United  States, 
particularly  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania ;  the  great 
commercial  and  manufacturing  houses  are  shaking.  Mean- 
while the  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  are 
making  speeches  on  the  crisis,  its  causes,  and  consequences. 
Three  months  have  already  been  taken  up  in  discussing 
the  question,  whether  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had 
or  had  not  the  right  to  withdraw  the  public  deposits  from 
the  vaults  of  the  Bank,  without  that  institution  having 
given  any  just  cause  of  complaint,  and  merely  because  it 
was  strongly  suspected  of  aristocratical  tendencies.  The 
resolutions  which  have  given  rise  to  these  debates,  have  been 
referred  by  the  Senate  to  the  Committee  on  Finance,  and 
by  the  House  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 
Debates  will  rise  on  the  reports  of  these  committees,  on 
petitions  and  memorials,  and  incidental  matters,  and,  I  am 
told,  will  last  two  or  three  months  longer.  This  slowness 
is  at  first  glance  difficult  to  be  understood,  among  a  peo- 
ple, which,  above  all  things,  strives  to  save  time,  and 
which  is  so  much  given  to  haste  and  despatch,  that  its 
most  suitable  emblem  would  be  a  locomotive  engine  or  a 
steamboat,  just  as  the  Centaurs  were  anciently  confounded 
with  their  horses.  From  all  the  large  towns  of  the  North, 
committees  appointed  by  great  public  meetings,  bring  to 
Washington  memorials  signed  by  thousands,  calling  for 
prompt  and  efficient  measures  to  put  an  end  to  the  crisis. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  partisans  of  the  Administration 


70  LETTER  VI. 

find  fault  with  the  prolixity  of  the  legislators.  The  calm- 
ness, or  rather  phlegm,  which  the  Americans  have  inherit- 
ed from  their  English  ancestors,  is  kept  undisturbed  in  both 
houses  of  Congress,  and  the  solemn  debate  goes  on.  One 
speaker  for  example,  Mr  Benton,  occupied  four  sessions, 
four  whole  days,  with  his  speech,  which  led  Mr  Calhoun 
to  observe,  that  the  Senator  from  Missouri  took  up  more 
time  in  expressing  his  opinion  on  a  single  fact,  than  the 
French  people  had  done  in  achieving. a  revolution.  But 
these  interminable  delays  ought  not  to  be  too  lightly  con- 
demned, and  for  myself  I  only  shrug  my  shoulders,  when 
I  hear  some  impatient  individuals  asserting  that  Congress 
would  be  more  expeditious,  were  it  not  for  the  eight  dol- 
lars a  day  which  they  receive  during  the  session.  This 
delay  may  seem  irreconcileable  with  one  of  the  distinctive 
traits  of  the  American  character,  but  in  reality  is  imperi- 
ously demanded  by  the  form  and  spirit  of  the  government, 
by  the  institutions  and  political  habits  of  the  country. 

The  general  discussion  in  Congress  has  no  other  object 
than  to  open  a  full  and  free  public  inquest,  which  enables 
each  and  all  to  make  up  an  opinion.  It  gives  rise  to  a 
discussion  of  the  question  by  the  innumerable  journals  in 
the  United  States  (where  there  are  1200  political  newspa- 
pers), by  the  twentyfour  legislatures,  each  composed  of 
two  houses,  and  by  the  public  meetings  in  the  cities  and 
towns.  It  is  an  animated  exchange  of  arguments  of  every 
calibre  and  every  degree,  of  contradictory  resolutions, 
mixed  up  with  applauses  and  hisses,  of  exaggerated  eulo- 
gies and  brutal  invectives.  A  stranger,  who  finds  himself 
suddenly  thrown  into  the  midst  of  this  hubbub,  is  con- 
founded and  stupefied ;  he  seems  to  himself  to  be  present 
in  the  primeval  or  the  final  chaos,  or  at  least  at  the  general 
breaking  up  of  the  Union.  But  after  a  certain  time  some 
gleams  of  light  break  forth  from  these  thick  clouds,  from 
the  bosom  of  this  confusion, — gleams,  which  the  good 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE.  71 

sense  of  the  people  hails  with  joy,  and  which  light  up  the 
Congress.  We  see  here  the  realization  of  the  Forum  on 
an  immense  scale,  the  Forum  with  its  tumult,  its  cries, 
its  pasquinades,  but  also  with  its  sure  instincts,  and  its 
flashes  of  native  and  untaught  genius.  It  is  a  spectacle , 
in  its  details,  occasionally  prosaic  and  repulsive,  but,  as  a 
whole,  imposing  as  the  troubled  ocean.  In  a  country  like 
this,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  these  delays ;  first,  because 
it  takes  a  long  time  to  interchange  words  between  the 
frontiers  of  Canada  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  secondly, 
because  nothing  is  so  dangerous  as  precipitation  in  a  Forum, 
whether  it  only  covers  the  narrow  space  between  the  Rostra 
and  the  Tarpeian  Rock,  or  extends  from  Lake  Champlain 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  from  the  Illinois  to  the 
Cape  of  Florida.  Unfortunately  the  session  in  the  Forum 
lasts  longer  than  usual  this  time.  The  demagogues  have 
set  the  popular  passions  in  violent  agitation  ;  the  sovereign 
people  has  allowed  itself  to  be  magnetised  by  its  flatterers, 
and  it  will  require  some  time  to  be  able  to  shake  off  the 
trance.  The  healing  beam,  which  will  fix  the  gaze  of  the 
multitude  and  dissipate  the  charm  that  envelopes  them, 
has  not  yet  broke  forth  from  the  East,  or  from  the  West  ; 
meanwhile  the  merchants  and  manufacturers,  who  are 
stretched  upon  the  coals,  writhe  in  vain  ;  there  is  no  answer 
to  their  cries. 

The  Bank,  meantime,  disappears  from  sight  and  keeps 
silence ;  it  continues  to  attend  to  its  own  business,  and 
prudently  confines  itself  to  that  alone.  Its  best  policy  is 
to  avoid  as  much  as  possible  making  itself  the  subject  of 
common  talk.  The  demagogues  have  raised  such  a  cry 
of  monopoly  and  aristocracy,  that  the  people  have  come 
to  believe  the  Bank  a  colossus  of  aristocracy,  a  prop  of 
monopoly.  These  words  monopoly  and  aristocracy  are 
here,  .what  the  word  Jesuits  was  in  France  a  few  years  ago  ; 
if  the  enemies  of  any  institution  can  write  on  its  back 


72  LETTER  VI. 

this  kind  of  abracadabra,  it  is  pointed  at,  hooted  at,  and 
hissed  at  by  the  multitude.  Such  is  the  magic  power  of 
these  words,  that  speculators  employ  them  on  all  oc- 
casions as  charms  to  draw  customers.  For  example,  at 
the  head  of  the  advertisements  of  steamboats  you  read 
in  staring  characters  :  No  MONOPOLY  ! ! !  It  is  pitiful  to 
say  that  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  has  a  monopoly, 
when  there  are  no  less  than  five  hundred  other  banks  in 
the  country ;  by  this  course  of  reasoning  one  might  con- 
vict the  sun  of  enjoying  a  monopoly  of  light.  And  yet 
the  multitude  has  believed  it,  and  believes  it  still.  Now 
the  best  policy  for  those  against  whom  such  a  storm  of 
unpopularity  is  raised,  is  to  run  for  port,  as  the  sailors  do 
in  a  gale  of  wind.  The  Bank  has  twice  attempted  to 
strike  a  blow,  by  taking  advantage  of  the  mistakes  of  its 
enemies,  and  both  times  the  stroke  has  recoiled  on  itself. 
The  first  time,  the  subject  of  dispute  was  a  draft  on 
the  French  government,  which  was  sold  to  the  Bank  last 
year  by  the  Federal  government,  and  which  France  refused 
to  pay  ;  the  draft  was,  therefore,  protested,  and  then  pai^d 
by  the  correspondent  of  the  Bank  in  Paris  in  honour  of 
the  endorser.  In  this  affair  the  Executive  of  the  United 
States  committed  two  faults :  1.  It  was  an  act  of  indiscre- 
tion to  draw  on  the  French  government,  before  the  Cham- 
bers had  made  the  necessary  appropriation  for  paying  the 
stipulated  indemnity ;  2.  Instead  of  drawing  on  the 
French  government  by  a  bill  of  exchange,  and  selling  the 
bill  to  the  Bank,  without  knowing  whether  it  would  be 
accepted,  the  Executive  would  have  conducted  itself  with 
more  propriety  towards  France,  towards  the  Bank,  and 
towards  itself,  if  it  had  authorized  the  Bank  to  receive 
the  moneys  paid  by  the  French  government,  in  the  capa- 
city of  its  agent  or  attorney.  By  the  commercial  practice 
of  all  countries,  and  of  this  in  particular,  the  Bank  had  a 
right  to  damages,  and  it  put  in  its  claim.  Its  object  in 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE.  73 

taking  this  step,  was  much  more  to  expose  the  errors  of 
the  Executive,  than  to  pocket  the  sum  of  50,000  or  80,000 
dollars.  But  its  adversaries  immediately  raised  the  cry, 
that  the  Bank  was  not  contented  with  exacting  enormous 
sums  from  the  sweat  of  the  people  to  the  profit  of  the 
stockholders,  (observe  that  the  dividends  of  the  Bank  are 
moderate,  compared  with  those  of  other  banking  compa- 
nies in  the  country,  and  that  the  Federal  government  is 
itself  the  largest  shareholder) ;  but  that  it  was  now  at- 
tempting, by  petty  chicanery,  to  extort  a  portion  of  the 
public  revenue,  and  to  bury  the  people's  money  in  Biddle's 
pockets.  To  this  reasoning,  and  it  passes  for  demonstra- 
tion, the  multitude  answered  by  imprecations  against  mo- 
nopoly and  the  moneyed  aristocracy,  and  by  renewed  shouts 
of  HURRAH  FOR  JACKSON  ! 

A  few  days  since  we  witnessed  another  episode  of  this 
kind.  The  Bank  is  charged,  by  act  of  Congress,  with 
the  duty  of  paying  the  pensions  of  the  old  soldiers  of  the 
revolution.  It  performs  the  service  gratuitously,  and  it  is 
notoriously  a  troublesome  one.  It  has  received  several 
sums  of  money  for  this  object,  and  at  this  moment  has 
about  500,000  dollars  in  its  vaults,  intended  for  the  next 
payments.  The  Administration,  desirous  of  transferring 
this  agency  from  the  Bank,  has  demanded  the  funds,  books, 
and  papers  connected  with  it.  The  Bank  replied,  that  it 
has  been  made  the  depository  of  this  trust  by  act  of  Con- 
gress, and  that  it  cannot,  ought  not,  and  will  not  surrender 
it,  unless  in  obedience  to  an  act  of  Congress.  The  Bank 
was  right  j  the  refusal  was  founded  in  justice  •  but  mark 
the  consequences.  Its  adversaries  express  the  greatest 
sympathy  for  these  illustrious  relics  of  the  revolution, 
whom  the  arrogance  of  the  Bank,  as  they  say,  is  about  to 
plunge,  at  the  close  of  their  career,  into  the  most  dreadful 
misery ;  they  pour  forth  the  most  pathetic  lamentations 
over  these  glorious  defenders  of  the  country,  whom  a 
10 


74  LETTER  VI. 

money-corporation  is  about  to  strip  of  the  provision  made 
for  their  declining  years  by  the  nation's  gratitude.  You 
may  imagine  all  the  noisy  arguments  and  patriotic  har- 
angues, that  can  be  delivered  on  this  text.  On  the  4th  of 
February,  the  President  sent  a  message  to  Congress  in  the 
same  strain.  All  this  is  mere  declamation,  of  the  most 
common-place  and  the  most  hypocritical  kind ;  for  who 
will  prevent  the  deliverers  of  America  from  duly  receiving 
their  pensions,  except  those  who  shall  refuse  them  drafts 
on  the  Bank,  which  the  Bank  would  pay  at  once  ?  But 
a  people  under  fascination  is  not  influenced  by  reason, 
and  it  is  at  this  moment  believed  by  the  multitude  that 
the  Bank  has  determined  to  kill  the  noble  veterans  of 
Independence  by  hunger.  Once  more,  then,  anathemas 
against  monopoly,  hatred  to  the  moneyed  aristocracy ! 
HURRAH  FOR  JACKSON  !  JACKSON  FOREVER  ! 

Whenever,  therefore,  the  Bank  has  allowed  itself  to  be 
drawn  into  a  conflict,  which  is  the  enemy's  country,  it  is 
pronounced  to  be  in  the  wrong,  though  it  were  ten  times 
right.  On  the  contrary,  when  it  has  kept  to  its  discounts 
and  credits,  it  has  always  been  able,  without  opening  its 
mouth,  to  belie  the  charges  of  its  enemies,  who  not  only 
impute  to  it  the  atrocious  crime  of  being  suspected  of  aris- 
tocracy and  monopoly,  but  attribute  to  it  now  the  public 
distress,  of  which  they  denied  the  existence  a  few  months 
ago,  and  of  which  they  are  themselves  the  authors.  Very 
lately  the  Bank  came  to  the  relief  of  several  local  banks, 
which  were  in  danger  of  failing,  and  a  few  days  since  it 
opened  its  coffers  liberally  to  Allen  &  Co.,  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal houses  in  the  country,  who,  although  having  a  capital 
much  beyond  the  amount  of  their  debts,  were  obliged,  by 
the  pressure  of  the  times,  to  suspend  payments ;  the  fail- 
ure of  that  house,  which  has  no  less  than  24  branches, 
would  have  involved  hundreds  of  others.  This  is  the 
only  way  in  which  the  Bank  should  assume  the  offensive  ; 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE.  75 

such  acts,  without  a  word  of  comment,  would  secure  it 
the  favour  and  the  support  of  all  impartial  and  enlightened 
men,  and  the  gratitude  of  the  commercial  interest,  much 
more  completely  than  the  most  eloquent  protests  against 
the  measures  of  this  or  that  secretary,  or  the  most  ingeni- 
ous and  able  defence  of  itself. 

I  am  more  and  more  convinced  that  the  United  States 
will  reap  advantage  from  this  crisis ;  sooner  or  later  the 
reform  of  the  banking  system  must  result  from  it.  Very 
probably,  the  National  Bank,  if  it  is  maintained,  and  the 
local  banks,  will  hereafter  be  less  absolutely  separated 
from  the  Federal  and  State  governments ;  that  is  to  say, 
that  the  Federal  and  local  governments  will  assume  the 
control  of  the  Banks,  and  consequently  the  banks  will 
become  a  part  of  the  governments.  In  this  way  many  of 
the  abuses  of  the  banking  system  will  be  reformed,  and 
the  legitimate  and  just  influence  of  the  banks  will  be 
strengthened.  It  would  be  easy  to  cite  numerous  facts, 
which  go  to  prove  the  tendency  towards  this  result ;  thus 
in  some  of  the  States,  the  Legislatures  have  established, 
or  are  occupied  in  establishing  banks,  in  which  the  State 
is  a  shareholder  to  the  amount  of  one  half  or  two  fifths  of 
the  capital,  appoints  a  certain  number  of  the  directors,  and 
reserves  to  itself  an  important  control  over  the  operations. 
There  are  some  States,  as  for  example,  Illinois,  in  which 
every  other  kind  of  bank  is  expressly  forbidden  by  the 
constitution. 

Republican  publicists  acknowledge  only  three  classes  of 
powers,  the  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial ;  but  it  will 
soon  be  seen  in  the  United  States,  that  there  is  also  a 
financial  power,  or  at  least  the  banks  will  form  a  branch 
of  government  quite  as  efficient  as  either  of  the  others. 
The  Bank  of  the  United  States  is  more  essential  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  country  than  the  Executive,  as  now  or- 
ganized. The  latter  conducts  a  little  diplomatic  inter- 


76  LETTER  VI. 

course,  well  or  ill,  with  the  European  powers,  nominates 
and  removes  some  unimportant  functionaries,  manoeuvres 
an  army  of  6,000  men  in  the  western  wilderness,  adds 
now  and  then  some  sticks  of  timber  to  the  dozen  ships  of 
war  that  are  on  the  stocks  at  Portsmouth,  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Washington,  Norfolk,  and  Pensacola. 
All  this  might  actually  cease  to  be  done  without  endanger- 
ing the  safety  of  the  country,  and  without  seriously 
wounding  its  prosperity,  that  is,  its  industry.  But  take 
from  the  country  its  institutions  for  the  maintenance  of 
credit,  or  only  that  which  controls  and  regulates  all  the 
others,  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  you  plunge  it 
into  a  commercial  anarchy  which  would  finally  result  in 
political  anarchy. 

The  word  politics  cannot  have  the  same  meaning  in  the 
United  States  as  in  Europe.  The  United  States,  are  not 
engaged,  like  the  nations  of  Europe,  in  territorial  combi- 
nations and  the  preservation  of  the  balance  of  a  continent, 
nor  are  they  entangled  in  treaties  of  Westphalia  or  Vienna. 
They  are  free  from  all  those  difficulties,  which  in  Europe 
arise  from  a  difference  of  origin  or  religion,  or  from  the 
conflict  between  rival  pretensions,  between  old  interests 
and  new  interests.  They  have  no  neighbour,  which  ex- 
cites their  suspicions.  The  policy  of  the  United  States 
consists  in  the  extension  of  their  commerce,  and  the  occu- 
pation by  agriculture  of  the  vast  domain,  which  nature 
has  given  them  ;  in  these  points  is  involved  the  great  mass 
of  their  general  and  individual  interests ;  these  are  the 
objects  which  inflame  their  political  and  individual  passions. 
As  the  Banks  are  the  soul  of  their  commerce,  their  rising 
manufactures,  and  even  their  agriculture,  it  is  evident  that 
the  success  of  their  politics  is  intimately  and  directly  con- 
nected with  the  right  organization  of  their  banking  system. 
The  real  government  of  the  country,  that  is  to  say,  the 
control  of  its  essential  interests,  is  as  much  in  the  banks  as 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE.  77 

in  any  body  or  power  established  by  the  constitution. 
The  time  is  come  when  this  fact  should  be  recognised  and 
sanctioned.  As  among  a  military  people  the  office  of  mar- 
shal or  lord-high-constable  is  the  first  in  the  kingdom,  so 
among  a  people  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  war,  and 
has  only  to  employ  itself  with  its  industry,  that  of  Presi- 
dent of  the  central  bank,  for  example,  ought  to  be  a 
public  charge,  political,  in  the  sense  adapted  to  the  condi- 
tion and  wants  of  that  people, — and  one  of  the  first  rank 
in  the  country. 

From  this  point  of  view,  it  may  be  said,  that  what  is 
now  passing  in  the  United  States,  is  a  struggle  in  which 
the  combatants  are,  on  the  one  side,  the  military  interest 
and  the  law,  which  have  hitherto  divided  between  them 
the  control  of  public  affairs,  and  on  the  other,  the  financial 
interest,  which  now  claims  its  share  in  them  ;  the  two  first 
have  coalesced  against  the  last,  and  have  succeeded  for  a 
time  in  raising  the  multitude  against  it,  but  they  will  fail 
in  the  long  run,  since  the  multitude  has  more  to  gain  from  it 
than  from  them.  It  is  said,  that,  when  the  committee  of  the 
New  York  merchants  went  to  Washington  to  present  a  peti- 
tion with  10,000  names  in  favour  of  the  Bank,  the  President 
observed  to  them,  that  they  declared  the  grievances  of  the 
brokers,  capitalists,  and  merchants  of  Wall  Street  and 
Pearl  Street,  but  that  Wall  Street  and  Pearl  Street  were 
not  the  people.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  story  is 
true  or  not,  but  I  know  that  such  an  answer  would  express 
the  opinion  of  the  dominant  party.  There  is  a  school 
here,  which  attempts  to  eliminate  the  wealthy  classes 
from  the  people,  and  which  is  just  the  reverse  of  the  old 
school  of  European  Tories,  which  reduces  the  people  to 
the  higher  classes,  and  excludes  from  that  rank  the  greater 
number  of  the  nation.  And  nothing  can  be  more  unjust, 
for  in  order  to  measure  the  real  importance  of  the  men 


78  LETTER  VI. 

of  Pearl  Street  and  Wall  Street,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
consider  what  New  York  would  be  without  them. 

In  fifty  years  the  population  of  New  York  has  increased 
tenfold,  its  wealth  probably  an  hundred  fold  ;  its  anima- 
ting influences  have  been  felt  for  hundreds  of  miles  around. 
This  unparalleled  growth  is  not  the  work  of  lawyers  and 
military  men  ;  the  merit  belongs  chiefly  to  the  industry,  the 
capital,  the  intelligence,  and  the  enterprise  of  that,  numer- 
ically speaking,  insignificant  minority  of  Wall  Street  and 
Pearl  Street.  It  is  very  easy  to  cant  about  the  aristocra- 
cy of  dollars,  and  those  filthy  metals  which  men  call  gold 
and  silver.  And  yet  have  not  those  vile  metals  ceased  to 
be  vile,  when  they  are  the  fruit  of  the  industry  and  en- 
terprise of  those  who  possess  them  ?  If  there  is  a  coun- 
try in  the  world  where  it  is  preposterous  to  prate  about  the 
aristocracy  of  dollars,  and  about  the  filthy  metals,  it  is 
this.  For  here,  more  than  any  where  else,  every  body  has 
some  employment  ;  whoever  has  capital  is  engaged  in 
turning  it  to  profit,  and  can  neither  increase  nor  even  keep 
it  without  great  activity  and  vigilance.  A  man's  wealth, 
is,  therefore,  very  generally  in  the  ratio  of  his  importance, 
and  even  of  his  agricultural,  manufacturing,  or  commercial 
capacity.  The  merchants  are  not  without  their  faults; 
they  are  disposed  to  weigh  everything  in  their  doubloon- 
scales,  and  a  people  governed  entirely  by  merchants  would 
certainly  be  to  be  pitied.  But  a  people  governed  by  law- 
yers or  by  soldiers  would  be  no  happier  and  no  freer. 
The  policy  of  the  Hamburg  Senate  in  basely  giving 
up  unhappy  political  fugitives  to  the  English  executioner, 
deserves  the  contempt  of  every  man  of  honour  ;  but  would 
the  rule  of  Russian  or  even  of  Napoleon's  bayonets,  or  the 
babbling  anarchy  of  the  Directory,  be  less  loathsome  to 
those  whose  heart  beats  with  the  love  of  liberty  or  with 
feelings  of  individual  and  national  honour  ? 

The  revolutions  of  ages,  which  change  religion,  man- 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE.  79 

ners,  and  customs,  modify  also  the  nature  of  the  powers 
that  regulate  society.  Providence  humbles  the  mighty, 
when  they  obstinately  shut  their  eyes  to  the  new  spirit  of 
the  age,  and  raises  up  the  lowly,  whom  this  new  spirit 
fires.  Four  thousand  years  ago,  it  was  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant dignities  in  Egypt  to  have  the  charge  of  embalm- 
ing the  sacred  birds  or  of  spreading  the  litter  of  the  bull 
Apis.  In  the  Eastern  empire  the  post  of  protovestiary  was 
one  of  the  first  in  the  state,  and  not  to  go  so  far  back,  it 
was  the  ambition  of  many  in  France,  hardly  four  years 
ago,  to  become  gentilhomme  de  la  chambre,  as  the  groom  of 
the  stole,  or,  in  other  words,  the  servant  in  charge  of  the 
wardrobe,  is  now  one  of  the  grand  dignitaries  of  England. 
Nobody  now-a-days  embalms  sacred  birds,  nobody  spreads 
the  litter  of  Apis.  No  one  intrigues  for  the  post  of  proto- 
vestiary or  gentleman  of  the  chamber,  and  from  present 
appearances,  I  do  not  think  that  even  the  dignity  of 
Groom  of  the  Stole,  will  long  be  an  object  of  ambition  in 
England.  There  are  no  longer  lord-high-constables,  or 
great  vassals,  or  knights-errant,  or  peers  of  France  in  the 
old  sense  of  the  word.  The  French  aristocracy,  so  bril- 
liant fifty  years  ago,  has  fallen  like  corn  before  the  reaper. 
The  mansions  of  the  old  heroes  have  become  factories  ; 
the  convents  have  been  changed  into  spinning- works  ; 
I  have  seen  Gothic  naves  in  the  best  style  of  art  trans- 
formed into  workshops  or  granaries,  and  our  brave  troops 
have  become  peaceable  labourers  on  the  military  roads. 

Boards  of  petty  clerks,  whom  the  Castellans  had  em- 
ployed to  record  their  sovereign  decrees,  became  in  France 
parlements,  which  braved  the  kings  and  assumed  to 
be  guardians  of  the  laws  of  the  realm.  At  present  the 
forge  masters  of  Burgundy  and  the  Nivernais,  the  distil- 
lers of  Montpelier,  the  clothiers  of  Sedan  and  Elbeuf, 
have  taken  the  place  of  the  parlements.  German  princes, 
who  can  boast  of  their  fifty  quarters,  dance  attendance  in 


80  LETTER  VII. 

the  imperial,  royal,  or  ministerial  antechambers,  while  their 
Majesties  or  their  Excellencies  are  conversing  familiarly 
with  some  banker  who  has  no  patent  of  nobility,  and  who 
even  disdains  to  oblige  his  royal  friends  by  accepting  one. 
The  East  India  Company,  a  company  of  merchants  if 
ever  there  was  one,  has  more  subjects  than  the  emperors 
of  Russia  and  Austria  together.  If  in  the  Old  World, 
where  the  old  interests  had  marked  every  corner  of  the 
land  with  their  stamp,  the  old  interests,  the  military  and 
the  law,  are  thus  obliged  to  come  to  terms  with  the  new 
interest  of  industry,  with  the  power  of  money,  how  can  it 
be  possible,  that,  in  the  New  World,  where  the  past  has 
never  taken  deep  root,  where  all  thoughts  are  turned 
toward  business  and  wealth,  this  same  power  will  not  force 
its  way  into  the  political  scene,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  its  adversaries  and  its  envious  rivals  ? 


LETTER   VII. 

RAILROADS      IN     AMERICA. 

RICHMOND,  (VA.)  MARCH  15,  1834. 

THREE  thousand  years  ago  the  kings  of  the  earth  were 
happy  ;  happy  as  a  king  ;  but  the  old  proverb  is  now 
become  a  falsehood.  Then  no  Constantinople  was  coveted  ; 
the  citadels  of  Antwerp  and  Ancona  were  not  built.  No 
one  troubled  himself  about  the  Rhenish  frontier ;  the 
natural  and  simple  Herodotus  told  marvellous  tales,  like 
those  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  about  the  country  watered 
by  the  Rhine.  The  banks  of  the  Danube  were  trackless 


RAILROADS  IN  AMERICA.  81 

morasses  ;  Vienna  was  not  yet,  nor  of  course  the  Treaty  of 
Vienna.  Peace  reigned  between  the  sovereigns,  or  at  least 
their  contests  were  altogether  academical,  philosophical,  and 
literary.  The  good  king  Nectanebus,  an  enlightened  prince, 
a  patron  of  the  arts,  played  charades  with  his  neighbours, 
the  mighty  monarchs  of  Asia ;  he  guessed  all  their  riddles 
without  their  being  able  to  solve  his  in  turn  j  his  glory 
was  unmatched,  his  people  rolled  in  prosperity.  The  con- 
dition of  men  of  letters  and  science  was,  to  be  sure,  some- 
what of  the  meanest ;  grammarians  and  philosophers  were 
sometimes  dragged  to  market  with  halters  on  their  necks, 
to  be  sold  like  cattle,  a  treatment  to  which  none  but 
negroes  are  now  subject.  But  if  they  were  men  of  genius, 
their  good  star  threw  them  into  the  hands  of  the  best  of 
masters,  such  as  Xanthus,  the  most  patient  and  kind  of 
men,  or  good  natured  princes,  like  Nectanebus,  who  knew 
how  to  appreciate  true  merit.  .ZEsop  having  become  the 
property  of  this  good  king,  soon  got  to  be  his  counsellor, 
friend,  and  confidant,  revised  his  charades  and  riddles,  and 
suggested  new  ones  to  the  king  in  such  a  modest  way, 
that  Nectanebus  really  believed  himself  the  author  of 
them.  One  day  Nectanebus,  by  his  advice,  proposed  to  his 
rival  monarchs  this  difficult  problem ;  How  would  you 
build  a  city  in  the  air  ?  After  they  had  puzzled  their 
brains  without  success,  Nectanebus  prepared  to  give  a 
solution  of  the  question  in  the  presence  of  the  ambassa- 
dors of  the  Asiatic  sovereigns  solemnly  convoked ;  ^Esop 
put  some  little  boys  in  baskets,  which  were  carried  up 
into  the  air  by  eagles  trained  for  the  purpose,  and  the  boys 
began  to  cry  out  to  the  astonished  ambassadors ;  "  Give 
us  stone  and  mortar,  and  we  will  build  you  a  city."  This 
old  story  has  often  occurred  to  my  mind  since  I  have  been  in 
the  United  States,  and  I  have  often  said  to  myself,  if  JSsop's 
boys  had  been  Americans,  instead  of  having  been  subjects 
of  king  Nectanebus,  they  would  have  demanded  mate- 
11 


82  LETTER  VII. 

rials,  not  for  building  a  city,  but  for  constructing  a  railroad. 
In  fact  there  is  a  perfect  mania  in  this  country  on  the  sub- 
ject of  railroads. 

While  at  Liverpool,  I  went  aboard  the  Pacific  to  engage 
a  berth,  and  Capt.  Waite,  a  very  worthy  man,  who  believes 
in  God  with  all  his  heart,  and  is  not  any  the  less  on  that 
account  a  very  skilful  commander,  and  a  most  intrepid 
sailor,  offered  me  the  latest  American  newspapers.  The 
first  I  opened  happened  to  be  the  Railroad  Journal. 
Soon  after  sailing  I  fell  sea-sick,  and  had  scarcely  a  mo- 
ment's relief  till  my  arrival  at  New  York ;  of  all  my  re- 
collections of  the  voyage,  the  most  distinct  is  that  of  having 
heard  the  word  railroad  occurring  once  every  ten  minutes, 
in  the  conversation  of  the  passengers.  At  New  York-  I 
went  to  visit  the  docks  for  building  and  repairing  vessels  ; 
after  having  examined  the  dry  dock  and  two  or  three 
other  docks,  my  guide,  himself  an  enthusiast  on  the  sub- 
ject of  railroads,  carried  me  to  the  railroad-dock,  where 
the  ships  are  moved  along  a  railway.  In  Virginia,  I  found 
railroads  at  the  bottom  of  the  coal  mines,  which  is  not, 
indeed,  new  to  a  European.  At  Philadelphia  I  visited  the 
excellent  penitentiary,  where  everything  was  so  neat, 
quiet,  and  comfortable,  (if  that  word  may  be  applied  to  a 
prison),  in  comparison  with  the  abominable  prisons  in 
France,  which  are  noisy,  filthy,  unhealthy,  cold  in  winter, 
and  damp  in  summer.  The  warden,  Mr  Wood,  who  man- 
ages the  institution  with  great  vigilance  and  philanthropy, 
after  having  shown  me  the  prisoners'  cells,  the  yards  in 
which  they  take  the  air,  the  kitchen  where  the  cooking 
is  done  by  steam,  and  allowed  me  to  visit  one  of  the  con- 
victs, a  poor  fellow  from  Alsace,  said  to  me,  just  as  I  was 
taking  my  leave  ;  "  But  you  have  not  seen  everything  yet, 
I  must  show  you  my  railroad  ;"  and  in  fact  there  was  a 
railroad  in  the  prison,  for  the  cart  in  which  food  was 
brought  to  the  prisoners. 


RAILROADS  IN  AMERICA.  83 

Some  days  ago  I  happened  to  be  in  the  little  city  of 
Petersburg,  which  stands  at  the  falls  of  the  Appomattox, 
and  near  which  there  is  an  excellent  railroad.  A  mer- 
chant of  the  city  took  me  to  a  manufactory  of  tobacco, 
in  which  some  peculiar  processes  were  employed.  In 
these  works  was  manufactured  that  sort  of  tobacco  which 
most  Americans  chew,  and  will  chew  for  some  time  to 
come,  in  spite  of  the  severe,  but  in  this  matter  just,  cen- 
sures of  English  travellers,  unless  the  fashion  of  vetos 
should  spread  in  the  United  States,  and  the  women  should 
set  theirs  on  the  use  of  tobacco,  with  as  unyielding  a  reso- 
lution, as  the  President  has  shown  towards  the  Bank. 
After  having  wandered  about  the  workshops  amidst  the 
poor  little  slaves  by  whom  they  are  filled,  I  was  stopping 
to  look  at  some  of  these  blacks,  who  appeared  to  me 
almost  white,  and  who  had  not  more  than  one  eighth  of 
African  blood  in  their  veins,  when  my  companion  said  to 
me,  "  As  you  are  interested  in  railroads,  you  must  see  the 
one  belonging  to  the  works."  Accordingly  we  went  to 
the  room  where  the  tobacco  is  packed  in  kegs,  and  sub- 
jected to  a  powerful  pressure.  The  apparatus  for  pressing 
is  a  very  peculiar  contrivance,  which  I  will  not  now  stop 
to  describe,  but  of  which  the  most  important  part  is  a 
moveable  railroad,  suspended  from  the  ceiling.  Thus  the 
Americans  have  railroads  in  the  water,  in  the  bowels  of 
the  earth,  and  in  the  air.  The  benefits  of  the  invention 
are  so  palpable  to  their  practical  good  sense,  that  they 
endeavour  to  make  an  application  of  it  everywhere  and  to 
everything,  right  or  wrong,  and  when  they  cannot  con- 
struct a  real,  profitable  railroad  across  the  country  from 
river  to  river,  from  city  to  city,  or  from  State  to  State, 
they  get  one  up,  at  least,  as  a  plaything,  or  until  they  can 
accomplish  something  better,  under  the  form  of  a  ma- 
chine. 

The  distance  from  Boston  to  New  Orleans  is  1600  miles, 


84  LETTER  VII. 

or  twice  the  distance  from  Havre  to  Marseilles.  It  is 
highly  probable,  that  within  a  few  years  this  immense 
line  will  be  covered  by  a  series  of  railroads  stretching  from 
bay  to  bay,  from  river  to  river,  and  offering  to  the  ever- 
impatient  Americans  the  'service  of  their  rapid  cars  at  the 
points  where  the  steamboats  leave  their  passengers.  This 
is  not  a  castle  in  the  air,  like  so  many  of  those  grand 
schemes  which  are  projected  amidst  the  fogs  of  the  Seine, 
the  Loire,  and  the  Garonne ;  it  is  already  half  completed. 
The  railroad  from  Boston  to  Providence  is  in  active  pro- 
gress ;  the  work  goes  on  a  V  Americaine,  that  is  to  say, 
rapidly.  From  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  there  will  soon 
be  not  only  one  open  to  travel,  but  two  in  competition 
with  each  other,  the  one  on  the  right,  the  other  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Delaware  ;  the  passage  between  the  two 
cities  will  be  made  in  seven  hours,  five  hours  on  the  rail- 
road, and  two  in  the  steamboat,  in  the  beautiful  Hudson 
and  the  magnificent  Bay  of  New  York,  which  the  Ameri- 
cans, who  are  not  afflicted  with  modesty,  compare  with 
the  Bay  of  Naples.  From  Philadelphia,  travellers  go  to 
Baltimore  by  the  Delaware  and  Chesapeake,  and  by  the 
Newcastle  and  Frenchtown  railroad,  in  eight  hours ;  from 
Baltimore  to  Washington,  a  railroad  has  been  resolved  upon, 
a  company  chartered,  the  shares  taken,  and  the  work  be- 
gun, all  within  the  space  of  a  few  months.  Between 
Washington  and  Blakely,  in  North  Carolina,  60  miles  of 
railroad  are  completed,  from  Blakely  northwards.  A  com- 
pany has  just  been  chartered  to  complete  the  remaining 
space,  that  is,  from  Richmond  to  the  Potomac,  a  distance 
of  70  miles,  and  the  Potomac  bears  you  to  the  Federal  city 
by  Mt.  Vernon,  a  delightful  spot,  the  patrimony  of  George 
Washington,  where  he  passed  his  honoured  old  age,  and 
where  his  body  now  reposes  in  a  modest  tomb.  Between 
Washington  and  Blakely,  those  who  prefer  the  steamboats, 
may  take  another  route  ;  by  descending  the  Chesapeake 


RAILROADS  IN  AMERICA.  85 

to  Norfolk,  they  will  find  another  railroad,  70  miles  in 
length,  of  which  two  thirds  are  now  finished,  and  which 
carries  them  to  Blakely,  and  even  beyond.  Blakely  is  a 
new  town,  which  you  will  not  find  on  any  map,  born  of 
yesterday ;  it  is  the  eldest,  and  as  yet  the  only  daughter 
of  the  Petersburg  and  Blakely  railroad.  From  Blakely  to 
Charleston  the  distance  is  great,  but  the  Americans  are 
enterprising,  and  there  is  no  region  in  the  world  in  which 
railroads  can  be  constructed  so  easily  and  so  cheaply  ;  the 
surface  has  been  graded  by  nature,  and  the  vast  forests 
which  cover  it,  will  furnish  the  wood  of  which  the  rail- 
road will  be  made ;  for  here  most  of  these  works  have  a 
wooden  superstructure.  From  Charleston,  a  railroad  137 
miles  in  length,  as  yet  the  longest  in  the  world,  extends 
to  Augusta,  whence  to  Montgomery,  Alabama,  there  is  a 
long  interval  to  be  supplied.  From  this  last  town  steam- 
boats descend  the  River  Alabama  to  Mobile,  and  those 
who  do  not  wish  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, on  their  way  to  New  Orleans,  will  soon  find  a  railroad 
which  will  spare  them  the  necessity  of  offering  this  act 
of  homage  to  the  memory  of  the  great  Cortez.* 

Within  ten  years  this  whole  line  will  be  completed,  and 
traversed  by  locomotive  engines,  provided  the  present  crisis 
terminates  promptly  and  happily,  as  I  hope  it  will.  Ten 
years  is  a  long  time  in  these  days,  and  a  plan,  whose  exe- 
cution requires  ten  years,  seems  like  a  romance  or  a  dream. 
But  in  respect  to  railroads,  the  Americans  have  already 
something  to  show.  Pennsylvania,  which  by  the  last 
census,  in  1830,  contained  only  1,348,000  inhabitants,  has 
325  miles  of  railroads  actually  completed,  or  which  will 
be  so  within  the  year,  without  reckoning  76  miles  which 
the  capitalists  of  Philadelphia  have  constructed  in  the 
little  States  of  New  Jersey  and  Delaware.  The  total 

*  For  observations  on  these  statements  see  Letter  XXI.,  and  the  Notes. 


86  LETTER  VII. 

length  of  all  the  railroads  in  France  is  95  miles,  that  is,  a 
little  more  than  what  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  in  their 
liberality,  have  given  to  their  poor  neighbours.  In  the 
State  of  New  York,  whose  population  is  the  most  adven- 
turous and  the  most  successful  in  their  speculations, ,  there 
are  at  present  only  four  or  five  short  railroads,  but  if  the 
sixth  part  of  those  which  are  projected  and  authorized  by 
the  Legislature,  are  executed,  New  York  will  not  be  be- 
hind Pennsylvania  in  this  respect.  The  merchants  of 
Baltimore,  which  at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence contained  6,000  inhabitants,  and  which  now 
numbers  100,000,  have  taken  it  into  their  heads  to  make 
a  railroad  between  their  city  and  the  Ohio,  a  distance  of 
above  300  miles.  They  have  begun  it  with  great  spirit, 
and  have  now  finished  about  one  third  of  the  whole  road. 
In  almost  every  section  east  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Missis- 
sippi, there  are  railroads  projected,  in  progress,  or  com- 
pleted, and  on  most  of  them  locomotive  steam-engines  are 
employed.  There  are  some  in  the  Alleghanies,  whose 
inclined  planes  are  really  terrific,  from  their  great  inclina- 
tion ;  these  were  originally  designed  only  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  goods,  but  passenger-cars  have  been  set  up  on 
them,  at  the  risk  of  breaking  the  necks  of  travellers. 
There  are  here  works  well  constructed  and  ill  constructed  ; 
there  are  some  that  have  cost  dear,  (from  40,000  to  50,000 
dollars  a  mile,)  and  others  that  have  cost  little,  (from 
10,000  to  15,000  dollars  a  mile).  New  Orleans  has  one, 
a  very  modest  one  to  be  sure,  it  being  only  five  miles  long, 
but  it  will  soon  have  others,  and  after  all,  it  is  before  old 
Orleans,  for  the  latter  has  yet  to  wait  till  its  capitalists, 
seized  with  some  violent  fit  of  patriotism,  shall  be  ready 
to  make  the  sacrifice  of  devoting  some  ten  or  twelve  per 
cent,  of  their  capital  to  the  construction  of  a  railroad  thence 
to  Paris.  Virginia,  whose  population  is  nearly  the  same 
with  that  of  the  Department  of  the  North,  and  which  is 

• 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION.  87 

inferior  in  wealth,  already  has  75  miles  of  railroad  fully 
completed,  and  110  in  progress,  exclusive  of  those  begun 
this  year.  The  Department  of  the  North,  where  it  would 
be  quite  as  easy  to  construct  them,  and  where  they  would 
be  more  productive,  has  not  a  foot  completed,  or  in  pro- 
gress, and  hardly  a  foot  projected.  Observe,  moreover, 
that  I  here  speak  of  railroads  alone,  the  rage  for  which  is 
quite  new  in  America,  while  that  for  canals  is  of  very  old 
date  (for  in  this  country  fifteen  years  is  an  age),  and  has 
achieved  wonders.  There  are  States  which  contain  500, 
800,  or  1,000  miles  of  canals.  We  in  France  are  of  all 
people  the  boldest  in  theory  and  speculation,  and  we  have 
made  the  world  tremble  by  our  political  experiments ;  but 
during  the  last  twenty  years  we  have  shown  ourselves 
the  most  timid  of  nations  in  respect  to  physical  improve- 
ments. 


LETTER   VIII. 

THE   BANKS. THE   PRESERVATION   OF   THE 

UNION. 

WASHINGTON,  APRIL  10,  1834. 

THE  drama  which  has  been  passing  in  the  United  States 
since  the  opening  of  the  session,  has  now  reached  the  end 
of  the  first  act.  The  two  Houses  have  had  under  consid- 
eration the  subject  of  the  removal  of  the  public  deposits 
from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  to  the  local  banks,  by 
the  Executive,  and  both  of  them  have  come  to  a  decision. 
The  Senate  has  declared,  by  a  majority  of  28  to  18,  that 


88  LETTER  VIII. 

the  reasons  alleged  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in 
justification  of  the  measure,  were  neither  satisfactory  nor 
sufficient,  and,  by  a  majority  of  26  to  20,  that  the  conduct 
of  the  President  in  this  matter  was  neither  conformable  to 
the  constitution  nor  to  the  laws.  This  is  the  first  instance, 
since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  constitution,  of  a  cen- 
sure of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation  by  the  Senate. 
The  House  has  resolved,  on  its  part,  that  the  charter  of 
the  Bank  ought  not  to  be  renewed,  that  the  public  de- 
posits ought  not  to  be  restored  to  it,  and  that  they  should 
remain  in  the  safe-keeping  of  the  local  banks.  The  first 
resolve  passed  by  a  vote  of  132  to  92 ;  the  majority  for 
the  two  others  was  much  less,  118  to  103,  and  117  to  105. 
It  has  been  resolved,  by  a  large  majority,  171  to  42,  that 
the  conduct  of  the  Bank  should  be  made  a  subject  of  in- 
vestigation, but  this  majority  includes  many  friends  of  the 
Bank. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Bank  will  not  be  the  object  of 
this  campaign  ;  the  more  vigorously  it  is  defended,  the 
more  hateful  it  becomes  to  the  democracy.  Those  who 
feel  an  interest  in  their  country  and  its  institutions,  ought 
to  make  an  effort  to  turn  the  debate  toward  some  other 
point,  for  both  sides  have  become  heated  and  exasperated 
in  the  struggle,  and  already  violence  has  been  threatened. 
The  most  brilliant  services  have  been  forgotten,  the  purest 
characters  trampled  under  foot.  The  Globe,  the  avowed 
organ  of  the  administration,  pours  forth  the  vilest  slanders 
on  men,  such  as  Messrs.  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster, 
of  whom  any  country  in  the  world  would  be  proud.  It 
repeated,  and  unhappily  it  reiterates  still,  that  the  votes  of 
the  Senate  have  been  bought  by  the  Bank.  On  the 
other  hand,  General  Jackson,  to  whom  it  is  impossible  to 
deny  the  possession  of  eminent  qualities,  has  been  himself 
exposed  to  the  vilest  indignities ;  the  gray  hairs  of  that 
brave  old  man  have  been  insulted  in  the  most  scandalous 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION.  89 

manner.  Attempts  have  even  been  made  to  throw  ridicule  on 
his  victory  at  New  Orleans,  the  most  brilliant  affair  in  the 
American  annals,  as  if  his  glory  were  not  the  common 
property  of  the  country.  Some  hot  heads  have  even  talk- 
ed of  recurring  to  violence  ;  commerce  and  enterprise  have 
been  struck  numb ;  for  want  of  means,  the  great  works 
of  Pennsylvania  have  been  in  danger  of  being  brought  to 
a  stand.  But  at  present  there  appears  to  be  a  general  wish 
to  bring  back  a  calm  ;  the  failure  of  a  certain  number  of 
individuals,  and  especially  that  of  some  banks,  have  proved 
a  signal  of  alarm,  which  has  recalled  every  one  to  a  sense 
of  the  common  danger,  the  general  ruin  that  threatened 
the  country.  There  has  been  a  failure  of  a  bank  in  Flo- 
rida, of  one  in  New  Jersey,  and  of  two  in  Maryland,  one 
of  which,  that  of  the  Bank  of  Maryland  in  Baltimore,  has 
caused  a  great  sensation.  The  leading  men  of  all  parties 
have  set  themselves  in  earnest  to  search  out  some  means 
of  bringing  the  commercial  crisis  to  an  end.  There  is 
room  to  hope,  therefore,  that  the  debate  will  lose  its  bit- 
terness, and  at  the  same  time  will  take  a  wider  range  ; 
instead  of  quarrelling  about  the  particular  question  of  the 
Bank,  it  were  to  be  wished  that  the  higher  questions  of 
political  economy  should  be  discussed,  such  as  that  of  a 
mixed  currency,  in  which  there  should  be  the  proper  mix- 
ture of  paper  and  the  metals  necessary  to  give  it  stability, 
without  keeping,  as  is  the  case  in  Europe,  a  large  unpro- 
ductive capital  in  the  shape  of  specie  ;  and  that  of  a  system 
of  institutions  of  credit,  banks  of  loan  and  discount,  of 
deposit  and  exchange,  powerful  enough  to  serve  as  a  spring 
and  a  stay  to  the  industry  of  the  country,  and  yet  so 
balanced  in  respect  to  each  other  and  the  powers  of  the 
government,  as  not  to  be  dangerous  to  the  public  liberties. 
A  very  able  speech  of  Mr  Calhoun's  has  already  drawn  the 
general  attention  to  the  subject  of  financial  refonn,  and 
one  of  the  senators  friendly  to  the  administration,  Mr  Ben- 
12 


90  LETTER  VIII. 

ton,  has  embodied  some  of  Mr  Calhoun's  ideas  in  the  shape 
of  a  bill. 

It  bis  now  universally  agreed,  that  to  obtain  a  solid  and 
stable  currency,  it  is  necessary  to  keep  a  certain  quan- 
tity of  gold  and  silver  in  the  country  ;  it  is  seen  that 
while  there  are  paper  dollars,  the  silver  dollars  will  disap- 
pear, that  ten-dollar  notes  necessarily  expel  the  eagles, 
and  that  half-eagles  will  not  stay  where  there  are  five-dol- 
lar bills.  It  is,  therefore,  proposed  to  abolish  the  issue  of 
notes  of  less  than  ten  or  even  twenty  dollars,  but  ail  that 
Congress  can  do  without  the  aid  of  a  National  Bank,  is  to 
prohibit  the  reception,  by  the  collectors  of  the  customs,  of 
the  bills  of  any  bank  which  has  in  circulation  notes  of  less 
than  ten  or  twenty  dollars  ;  for  Congress  has  no  direct 
power  over  the  local  banks.  This  measure,  however, 
would  be  insufficient ;  for  the  amount  of  money  paid  for 
customs  bears  a  very  small  proportion  to  the  whole  circu- 
lation of  the  country,  and  consequently  would  not  affect 
the  circulation  in  districts  remote  from  the  sea  coast.  The 
Administration  does  not  deny  the  necessity  of  a  police  for 
controlling  and  regulating  the  banks  ;  it  seems  disposed  to 
effect  it  by  means  of  some  of  the  local  banks,  which 
should  act  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  to  which  should  be  granted  certain  privi- 
leges, such  as  that  of  being  the  depositories  of  the  public 
money  without  paying  interest.  But  this  plan  has  some 
disadvantages  ;  it  would  invest  the  Secretary,  that  is  the 
President,  with  a  great  discretionary  power,  which  is 
wholly  at  war  with  the  political  maxims  of  American  gov- 
ernment. It  is  a  received  truth  in  the  United  States,  that 
the  sword  and  the  purse  ought  not  to  be  in  the  same  hands. 
Beside  it  is  doubtful  whether  this  control  would  be  suffi- 
ciently powerful  and  sufficiently  enlightened,  and  finally 
it  would  be  difficult  by  means  of  this  chain  of  local  banks 
to  answer  one  of  the  most  pressing  wants  of  the  country, 


PRESERVATION  OK  THE  UNION.  91 

facility  of  exchange  ;  because  they  are,  and  must  be  as 
slightly  connected  with  each  other,  as  the  sovereign  States 
from  which  they  hold  their  charters.  To  exterminate  small 
hank-notes  the  surest  agent  would  boa  National  Bank,  and 
Congress  has  the  power  to  establish  one.  This  power, 
which  is  disputed  because  all  its  powers  are  disputed, 
would  not  be  contested,  if  it  were  stipulated  that  the  Hank 
should  obtain  the  consent  of  each  State,  before  establish- 
ing a  branch  within  its  limits.  It  would  then  be  sufficient 
that  the  Bank  should  not  receive  the  bills  of  any  other 
bank,  which  issued  notes  of  less  than  10  or  20  dollars,  or 
which  received  the  bills  of  other  banks,  that  issued  notes 
less  than  the  same  minimum.  In  fine,  a  National  Bank 
is  an  admirable  instrument  of  exchange,  and  the  most  in- 
fluential friends  of  the  Administration  are  convinced  of  the 
necessity  of  an  institution  of  the  sort.  I  cannot  believe 
that  the  President,  and  especially  the  Vice-President,  are 
really  as  much  opposed  to  one,  as  they  have  the  air  of 
being.  As  it  is  possible  to  conceive  of  a  combination  of 
circumstances,  which  may  reconcile  its  existence  with  the 
interests  and  views  of  Mr  Van  Buren  (such  would  be,  for 
instance,  the  creation  of  a  Bank  of  which  the  seat  should 
be  New  York,  instead  of  Philadelphia),  it  may  be  hoped 
that  sooner  or  later,  under  one  form  or  another,  Mr  Van 
Buren  may  yield  to  the  necessity  of  the  case.  It  is  true 
that  out  of  hatred  to  the  present  Bank,  the  prejudices  of 
the  multitude  have  been  excited  against  the  establishment 
of  any  bank  at  all,  and  it  is  much  more  easy  to  rouse  the 
popular  passions  than  to  control  them  when  once  let  J< 
this  kind  of  game  has  resulted  in  the  self-murder  of  many 
a  man's  popularity.  But  in  this  matter  the  voice  of  the 
public  interest  and  of  individual  interest  will  speak  so 
loud,  that  it  would  be  astonishing  if  it  did  not  make  itself 
heard  by  a  people,  so  much  more  sensible  and  reflecting 


92  LETTER  VIII. 

than  most  of  the  European  people.  There  is,  then,  in 
short,  still  some  chance  for  a  Bank  of  the  United  States. 

The  following  are  the  principal  features,  in  which  both 
parties  seem  to  me  to  be  at  present  tacitly  agreed.  The 
capital  of  the  Bank  to  be  about  50  millions.  The  shares 
of  the  present  Bank,  representing  a  capital  of  35  millions, 
to  be  exchanged  at  par  for  shares  in  the  new  bank  ;  the 
rest  of  the  capital  to  be  subscribed  by  the  individual 
States,  thus  giving  the  Bank  a  more  truly  national  charac- 
ter :  The  rate  of  discount  to  be  reduced  from  6  to  5  per 
cent. ;  Mr  Forsyth,  a  Senator  friendly  to  the  administra- 
tion, has  demanded  this  modification  :  The  laws  relative 
to  public  and  private  deposits  to  be  changed  in  conformity 
with  the  propositions  of  Mr  Cambreleng  :  The  seat  of  the 
mother  bank  to  be  transferred  to  New  York :  The  opera- 
tions of  the  Bank  to  be  subjected  to  more  strict  regulations 
than  those  of  the  old  Bank  have  been  :  The  Bank  to  be 
required  to  keep  on  hand  a  larger  amount  of  reserved  pro- 
fits, or  some  other  provision  borrowed  from  the  bank  of 
England  to  be  adopted,  in  order  to  give  more  security  to 
the  institution. 

It  would  not,  probably,  be  impossible  to  unite  a  majori- 
ty of  the  two  Houses  in  favour  of  a  plan  which  should 
embrace  these  features.  But  there  is  another  subject  about 
which  little  is  said,  and  upon  which  no  one  has  yet  pub- 
licly declared  himself,  although  there  are  many  who  have 
thought  much  about  it,  and  it  will  not  be  easy  to  reconcile 
opinions  upon  it.  How  shall  the  Bank  be  governed  ? 
What  relation  shall  there  be  between  the  administration 
of  the  Bank,  and  the  Federal  and  State  governments? 
How  and  by  whom  shall  the  President  of  the  Bank  be 
chosen  ?  This  subject,  about  which  there  is  a  total  silence, 
appears  to  me  to  be  of  so  vital  importance,  that  I  am  con- 
vinced that  what  has  occurred  in  the  United  States  during 
the  last  six  months,  would  never  have  taken  place,  if  the 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION.  93 

nomination  of  the  President  of  the  Bank  had  been 
lodged  with  the  President  of  the  United  States.  In 
Europe  and  particularly  in  France,  the  government  of  the 
banks  is  more  or  less  in  the  hands  and  under  the  control 
of  the  king  and  the  ministers.  In  America,  conformably 
with  the  principles  of  self-government,  the  Bank,  like  all 
the  other  industrial  and  financial  institutions,  has,  up  to 
this  time,  governed  itself.  The  Federal  government, 
owning  one  fifth  of  the  shares,  names  one  fifth  of  the 
directors  ;  its  powers  stop  there.  The  American  axiom, 
which  forbids  the  union  of  the  sword  and  the  purse  in  the 
same  hand,  is  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  a  controlling  in- 
fluence over  the  choice  of  the  President  of  the  Bank  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  ;  and  yet  I  am  persuaded 
that  the  democratic  party  will  not  be  willing  to  hear  of  a 
Bank,  in  the  government  of  which  it  could  not  inter- 
fere. 

The  upper  classes  (bourgeoisie)  are  not  here  what  they  are 
in  Europe  ;  while  in  Europe  they  rule,  here  they  are  ruled. 
Democracy  takes  its  revenge  in  America  for  the  un- 
just contempt  with  which  it  has  been  so  long  treated  in 
Europe.  Now  it  is  to  these  upper  classes,  that  the  private 
shareholders  of  the  Bank  belong ;  it  is  the  merchants, 
manufacturers,  and  capitalists,  who  will  always  derive  the 
most  direct  benefit  from  a  National  Bank,  although  all 
classes  must  indirectly  derive  great  advantages  from  it. 
From  the  time  when  the  upper  classes  sanctioned  a  com- 
pletely universal  suffrage,  without  making  any  exception 
in  favour  of  natural  superiority,  whether  industrial  or  sci- 
entific, from  the  day  when  they  consented  that  number 
should  be  every  thing,  and  knowledge  and  capital  nothing, 
they  have  signed  their  own  abdication.  It  is  too  late  to 
agitate  the  questions,  whether  this  is  absolutely  a  good  or 
an  evil,  or  whether  it  is  well,  in  the  agricultural  States, 
with  a  scattered  population,  such  as  Ohio.  Indiana,  and 


94  LETTER  VIII. 

Illinois,  and  bad  in  large  and  populous  cities,  the  seats  of 
a  vast  commerce,  such  as  Philadelphia  and  New  York. 
This  is  a  matter  already  settled  past  recall  ;  when  the  sword 
is  surrendered,  the  vanquished  must  submit  to  take  the  law 
from  the  victor.  In  case,  then,  of  the  creation  of  a  new  Na- 
tional Bank,  the  shareholders  must  consent  to  receive  their 
head,  either  from  the  President  and  Senate,  as  other  pub- 
lic functionaries  are  appointed,  or  from  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives alone,  or  from  some  other  similar  source.  If 
in  a  new  or  a  somewhat  modified  Bank,  the  Federal  and 
local  governments  should  be  stockholders  to  a  large  amount, 
this  participation  of  the  President  or  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, or  of  special  delegates  chosen  by  the  States,  in 
the  government  of  the  Bank,  would  appear  altogether 
natural,  even  in  the  eyes  of  the  most  exclusive  partisans 
of  self  government.  It  remains  to  be  seen,  whether  in 
this  case,  the  Bank  would  not  be  more  likely  to  become 
the  instrument  of  party,  a  den  of  intrigue  and  corruption, 
a  golden  calf,  a  monster,  as  it  is  so  often  unjustly  called, 
than  in  the  present  state  of  things. 

If  this  quarrel  should  be  terminated  by  a  compromise, 
we  may  expect  that  it  will  be  effected  on  the  basis  above 
stated.  The  upper  classes  will,  perhaps,  consider  the  con- 
ditions as  hard,  but  they  should  beware  of  rejecting  them. 
It  would  be  a  great  gain  to  them  to  obtain,  under  any 
form,  a  decisive  sanction  of  a  National  Bank,  connected 
with  the  government,  and  therefore  incorporated  with  the 
interests  of  the  country.  Not  only  are  numbers  at  present 
against  the  Bank,  and  numbers  give  the  law  here,  but  the 
Opposition  is  not  so  well  organised  as  the  democratic  party. 
The  Opposition  has,  indeed,  three  leaders,  who  do  not 
always  agree  ;  the  views  of  Mr  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina 
do  not  coincide  with  those  of  Messrs.  Clay  and  Webster 
on  the  subjects  of  the  tariff  and  States'  rights  ;  and  Mr 
Clay,  the  son  of  the  west,  and  Mr  Webster,  who  comes 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION.  95 

from  Boston,  the  focus  of  Federalism,  differ  on  several 
constitutional  questions.  The  democratic  party,  on  the 
contrary,  is  better  disciplined ;  the  two  heads,  General 
Jackson  and  Mr  Van  Buren,  present  a  formidable  union  of 
qualities  and  faculties.  The  old  General  is  firm,  prompt, 
bold,  energetic  ;  Mr  Van  Buren,  who  sets  up  for  the  Amer- 
ican Talleyrand,  is  mild,  conciliating,  prudent,  and  saga- 
cious ;  his  adversaries  call  him  the  little  magician.  While 
the  pretensions  of  Messrs  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster  are 
scarcely  to  be  reconciled  with  each  other,  and  neither  of 
them  is  willing  to  be  second,  Mr  Van  Buren"  is  ready  to 
serve  under  General  Jackson  for  the  purpose  of  becoming 
his  successor  in  the  elections  of  1836.  Every  kingdom 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  But,  if  no  compro- 
mise can  be  made,  if  the  democracy  is  too  untrac table, 
and  the  upper  classes  persist  in  claiming  more  than  their 
position  authorises  them  to  do,  if  the  feelings,  kept  in  a 
state  of  excitement,  become  exasperated  on  both  sides, 
and  the  contest  be  too  much  prolonged,  the  most  frightful 
consequences  may  ensue  ;  even  the  Union  may  be  endan- 
gered. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  of  Independence,  the  American 
Confederacy  occupied  only  a  narrow  strip  along  the  Atlan- 
tic. Since  that  time  the  wave  of  an  active,  enterprising, 
and"  rapidly  increasing  population,  has  rolled  over  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  more  recently  over  the 
Missouri,  the  Red  River,  the  Arkansas,  and  I  know  not 
how  far.  Toward  the  South  it  is  already  sweeping  over 
the  Sabine,  and  covering  Texas,  while  toward  the  West, 
it  has  topped  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  is  approaching 
the  Pacific  shore.  Instead  of  thirteen  States,  there  are 
twentyfour,  and  the  number  will  soon  be  increased  to 
twentysix.  By  the  side  of  the  old  Atlantic  strip,  two 
other  vast  tracts  with  a  more  fertile  soil,  have  yielded  up 
their  riches  to  civilised  man  ;  one,  at  the  west,  comprises 


96  LETTER  VIII. 

the  great  triangle  lying  between  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi, 
and  the  lakes,  and  the  other  at  the  south,  includes  the  fer- 
tile regions  of  Florida  and  Louisiana,  which,  under  the 
French  and  Spanish  rule,  were  a  solitary  wilderness.  The 
geographical  centre  of  the  Union  fifty  years  ago  was  on 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  on  the  spot  where  the  city  of 
Washington — that  paper  capital — now  stands ;  it  is  now 
at  Cincinnati,  and  will  soon  be  near  St  Louis.  In  propor- 
tion as  the  territory  of  the  Confederacy  has  been  extended, 
the  Federal  bond  has  been  weakened.  It  was  nearly 
snapped  asunder  during  the  Nullification  crisis,  occasioned 
by  the  resistance  of  South  Carolina  to  the  tariff  adopted 
under  the  influence  of  New  England,  in  order  to  protect 
her  growing  manufactures.  If  Congress  had  not  satisfied 
the  demands  of  South  Carolina,  Virginia  would  have 
made  common  cause  with  the  latter,  and  her  example 
would  have  carried  the  whole  South.  The  patriotic  elo- 
quence of  Mr  Webster,  the  moderation  of  Mr  Clay  and 
his  prodigies  of  parliamentary  strategy,  the  efforts  of  Mr 
Livingston,  then  Secretary  of  State,  the  firm,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  conciliatory  conduct  of  the  President,  who, 
for  the  first  time,  heard  a  bold  defiance  with  patience, 
and  the  calm  attitude  of  the  Northern  States,  prevented 
for  the  moment  a  general  dissolution  of  the  Union :  but 
the  germ  of  mischief  remains ;  the  charm  is  broken ;  the 
ear  has  become  familiar  with  the  ominous  word  SEPARATION. 
A  habit  has  grown  up  of  thinking,  and  even  of  declaring, 
whenever  the  interests  of  the  North  and  the  South  jar,  that 
the  cure-all  will  be  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

South  Carolina  keeps  her  militia  organised,  and  exacts 
from  the  State  officers  a  special  oath  of  allegiance.  Geor- 
gia and  Alabama  contest  the  validity  of  treaties  concluded 
between  the  Federal  government  and  the  Cherokee  and 
Creek  nations.  (See  Note  11.)  Most  of  the  States  seek 
to  extend  the  limits  of  their  individual  sovereignty.  The 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION.  97 

doctrine  of  State  rights  has  even  insinuated  itself  into  the 
bosom  of  orthodox  Philadelphia,  for  I  see  by  the  journals, 
that  a  States'  rights  dinner  is  announced  there.  These 
symptoms  may  become  full  of  danger  in  a  moment  of 
universal  excitement.  When  the  passions  are  at  the  helm, 
there  is  no  pause  in  the  course.  What,  for  instance,  would 
be  the  event,  if  Nullification  should  find  an  echo  in  the 
same  States  of  the  North,  where  it  has  lately  been  so 
firmly  rejected  ?  It  is  they  that  have  the  most  direct  in- 
terest in  the  establishment  of  a  National  Bank  ;  it  is  they 
that  suffer  most  from  the  financial  combinations  of  General 
Jackson,  and  from  the  objections  of  Southern  statesmen 
against  the  constitutionality  of  a  bank.  Although  no  allu- 
sion is  made  to  this  danger,  it  is  evident  that  the  solicitude 
of  many  persons  has  been  aroused  by  it,  and  it  is  fortunate 
that  it  is  so,  for  a  more  general  disposition  to  conciliatory 
measures  is  the  consequence. 

The  principle  of  separation  is  engaged  in  a  deadly  con- 
flict with  the  spirit  of  centralisation  or  consolidation ; 
hardly  was  the  constitution  signed,  when  twelve  additional 
articles  or  Amendments  were  immediately  adopted,  almost 
all  of  which  contained  restrictions  on  the  powers  and 
attributes  of  the  Federal  government.  At  the  same  time 
the  authority  of  Congress  to  charter  a  Bank,  and  give  it 
powers  within  the  territories  of  the  States,  was  contested  ; 
on  this  point,  however,  the  principle  of  union  was  victo- 
rious, and  the  Bank  was  established.  Next,  the  right  of 
engaging  in  Internal  Improvements  was  denied  to  Congress, 
which,  after  a  long  struggle,  has  been  compelled  to  resign 
its  claims ;  General  Jackson  willed  it,  and  it  was  done. 
The  National  Road,  which  extends  from  Washington  to 
the  western  wilderness,  and  for  which  appropriations  have 
been  annually  voted,  each  professing  to  be  the  last,  shows 
what  the  Federal  government  could  do  and  wished  to  do. 
Even  the  uniform  system  of  weights  and  measures,  seems 
13 


98  LETTER  VIII. 

to  be  on  the  point  of  being  broken  up,  in  spite  of  the  ex- 
press provisions  of  the  constitution.  Pennsylvania  has 
undertaken,  nobody  knows  why,  to  establish  regulations 
on  this  point  contrary  to  the  general  usage.*  The  public 
debt  is  now  paid  ;  that  is  one  Federal  tie  the  less.  The 
Bank,  assailed  afresh,  is  on  the  point  of  falling ;  that  is  an 
immense  loss  to  the  Federal  principle.  The  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  one  of  the  bulwarks  of  the 
Union,  is  assaulted.  The  vast  domain  of  the  West,  (see 
Note  12,)  the  national  property,  seems  in  danger  of  being 
given  up  to  individual  States,  for  this  disposition  is  one  of 
the  favorite  topics  of  the  democratic  party. 

But  if  centralisation  comes  off  the  worse  in  Federal 
politics,  it  has  the  better  within  the  States.  The  principal 
States  are  engaged  in  constructing  vast  systems  of  internal 
communication ;  they  are  establishing  for  themselves  finan- 
cial systems,  and  many  of  them  are  about  to  set  up  great 
banks,  which  shall  exercise  within  their  respective  limits 
the  salutary  influence  possessed  by  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  throughout  the  whole  Union.  Thus  each  State,  as 
it  detaches  itself  from  the  Federal  Union,  organises  more 
fully  its  own  powers,  and  binds  more  firmly  together  its 
imperfectly  combined  elements.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
industry  and  the  spirit  of  enterprise  restore  to  the  Union 
the  strength,  of  which  political  jealousy  and  party  quarrels 
tend  to  deprive  it.  There  is  not  a  family  at  the  North 
that  has  not  a  son  or  a  brother  in  the  South ;  the  commu- 
nity of  interests  daily  grows  stronger ;  commerce  is  a 
centripetal  force  ;  along  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  there  is 
only  one  mart,  New  York ;  there  is  only  one  of  importance 
on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  New  Orleans  ;  and  the  relations  of 
New  York  and  New  Orleans  make  these  two  cities,  instead 


*  An  act  has  been  passed  by  the  Pennsylvania  legislature,  providing  that 
2,000  pounds  shall  make  a  ton. 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION.  99 

of  rivals,  mutual  supports.  The  railroads  and  the  steam- 
boats spread  over  the  country  the  meshes  of  a  net  not 
easily  broken  ;  great  distances  vanish  ;  before  long  it  will 
be  easy  to  go  from  Boston  to  New  Orleans  in  eight  days, 
less  time  than  is  generally  required  to  go  from  Brest  to 
Marseilles.  When  we  reflect  on  the  extent  of  the  Roman 
empire  for  ages,  we  cannot  doubt  the  possibility  of  main- 
taining a  certain  degree  of  unity  on  the  American  territory, 
immeasurably  vast  as  it  appears  to  an  eye  accustomed  to 
the  divisions  of  the  map  of  Europe.  The  Romans  had 
not  attained  that  degree  of  perfection  in  the  means  of  inter- 
course which  we  possess ;  not  only  had  they  no  know- 
ledge of  steamboats  and  railroads,  and  the  telegraph,  but 
they  had  few  highways,  and  were  unacquainted  with  the 
use  of  carriages  hung  on  springs.  The  progress  of  com- 
mercial and  financial  arts,  makes  it  more  easy  to  manage 
the  financial  concerns  of  the  universe  now,  than  it  was  to 
administer  those  of  a  province  in  the  time  of  Cassar.  I 
cannot,  therefore,  make  up  my  mind  to  believe,  that  the 
Union  will  be  broken  up  into  fragments,  driven  in  dif- 
ferent directions  and  dashing  one  against  another. 

And  yet  it  is  very  possible,  that  the  Union  will  not  con- 
tinue, long  on  its  present  footing.  Are  the  relations  estab- 
lished between  the  States  by  the  constitution  of  1789,  the 
most  perfect  that  can  be  devised  now  ?  Ought  not  the 
unforeseen  formation  of  the  two  great  groups  of  the  West 
and  the  Southwest  be  followed  by  some  modification  of 
those  relations  ?  Would  not  the  subdivision  of  the  gene- 
ral confederacy  into  three  subordinate  confederacies,  con- 
formable to  the  three  great  territorial  divisions,  the  North, 
the  South,  and  the  West,  with  a  more  intimate  union 
between  the  members  of  each  group,  have  the  effect  of 
satisfying  the  advocates  of  State  rights,  without  endanger- 
ing the  principle  of  union?  Would  not  this  arrangement 
be  the  means  of  giving  more  elasticity  to  the  Union? 


100  LETTER  IX. 

Could  not  the  existence  of  three  partial  confederacies  be 
reconciled  with  that  of  a  central  authority,  invested  with 
the  undisputed  powers  of  the  present  Federal  government, 
one  army,  one  navy,  one  diplomatic  representation  abroad, 
one  common  right  of  citizenship,  one  Supreme  Court,  and, 
as  far  as  possible,  one  system  of  customs,  and  one  Bank  ? 
These  are  questions,  which  it  will,  perhaps,  be  worth 
while  to  examine  some  day,  and  even  at  no  distant  day. 
But  it  would  be  desirable,  that  they  should  be  approached 
and  discussed  with  calmness.  If  they  should  be  unex- 
pectedly raised  in  a  period  of  irritation  and  bad  feelings, 
they  would  be  the  signal  of  a  deplorable  catastrophe. 
Union  gives  strength ;  North  America,  once  parcelled  out 
into  hostile  fragments,  would  be  of  no  more  weight  in  the 
balance  of  the  world,  than  the  feeble  republics  of  South 
America. 


LETTER   IX. 

THE    FIRST    PEOPLE    INTHE    WORLD. 

PHILADELPHIA,  APRIL  24,  1834. 

WHICH  is  the  first  people  in  the  world  ?  There  is  no 
nation  which  does  not  make  pretensions  to  this  superiority. 
Who  in  France  has  not  sung  in  the  words  of  Beranger, 
"  Queen  of  the  world,  oh  my  country !  oh  France  !"  in 
the  full  conviction,  that  the  French  nation  was  predesti- 
ned to  be  forever  at  the  head  of  the  human  race,  to 
eclipse  all  others,  in  peace  and  in  war  ?  For  myself,  be- 
fore I  had  crossed  the  frontier,  I  believed  most  implicitly, 


THE  FIRST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD.  1Q1 

that  we  were  not  only  the  most  generous  and  chivalric  of 
people,  the  most  intellectual  and  ingenious,  the  first  in  the 
fine  arts,  the  most  amiable  and  brilliant ;  but  also  that  we 
were  the  most  enlightened,  the  first  in  political  and  indus- 
trial arts,  the  most  inventive  and  the  most  practical,  in 
short,  the  pattern-nation,  perfect  and  unrivalled.  Notwith- 
standing the  rains  and  fogs  of  Paris,  I  supposed  our  climate 
the  mildest  and  the  most  serene  in  the  world ;  in  spite  of 
the  Landes  and  Champagne,  I  considered  it  undeniable, 
that  our  soil  was  the  most  fertile,  our  scenery  the  most 
picturesque,  in  the  world.  Trusting  to  the  reports  of  our 
exhibitions  of  industrial  skill,  1  was  ready  to  swear  that 
we  had  left  our  neighbours  of  England  a  hundred  leagues 
behind,  and  that  their  manufacturers,  to  avoid  being  re- 
duced to  beggary  by  our  competition,  would  soon  be 
obliged  to  come  over  to  learn  how  to  smelt  and  refine  iron, 
how  to  spin  cotton,  how  to  manufacture  steel,  how  to 
manage  the  most  gigantic  establishments  in  the  most 
economical  manner,  how  to  despatch  mountains  of  mer- 
chandise beyond  sea  most  expeditiously. 

After  having  crossed  the  frontier  one  gradually  lowers 
these  magnificent  pretensions ;  patriotism  becomes  purer 
and  stronger.  In  visiting  foreign  parts  one  sees  what  is 
wanting  to  the  prosperity  and  glory  of  his  country,  and 
how"  it  might  be  possible  to  add  some  jewels  to  her  crown. 
Thus  it  does  not  require  long  observation  to  see,  that  if 
England  might  borrow  much  from  us,  we  have  not  less  to 
receive  from  her.  The  English  are  not  only  more  skilful 
manufacturers  and  better  merchants  than  we  are,  but  they 
possess  in  a  higher  degree  than  we  do,  those  qualities 
which  enable  men,  after  having  conceived  grand  projects, 
to  carry  them  into  execution.  The  English  have  that 
practical  sagacity  and  that  unbending  perseverance,  by 
which  our  Titan-like  battles  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
Empire,  our  impetuous  and  devoted  enthusiasm,  our  un- 


102  LETTER  IX. 

paralleled  victories,  our  unmatched  triumphs,  were  reduced 
to  treaties  of  Vienna,  that  is  to  say,  were  made  to  result  in 
our  own  humiliation,  and  in  the  enthronement  of  Great 
Britain  on  the  apex  of  the  European  pyramid.  The  Eng- 
lish have  less  of  the  gift  of  speech,  but  more  capacity  for 
action,  than  we  have.  And  it  is  owing  to  this,  that  they 
have  found  means  to  extend  their  colonial  possessions, 
while  all  other  nations  were  losing  theirs  ;  what  they  lost 
in  the  West,  they  have  supplied  in  the  East  tenfold.  They 
possess  that  political  sense,  to  which  they  owe  the  peace- 
ful settlement,  during  the  last  three  years,  of  questions, 
that  seemed  destined  to  shake  the  granite  foundations  of 
their  island  and  bury  it  in  the  sea.  They  have  achieved 
their  Reform ;  they  have  abolished  the  monopoly  of  the 
East  India  Company  ;  they  have  reconstructed  the  Bank  ; 
they  have  abolished  slavery.  During  this  period,  we  have 
been  revolving  about  questions  of  secondary  importance, 
without  being  able  to  make  a  decision  ;  we  do  not  know 
how  to  go  to  work  with  monopolies,  which,  in  comparison 
with  the  colossal  privileges  of  the  East  India  Company, 
are  grains  of  sand ;  we,  who  have  given  to  the  world  the 
most  conclusive  arguments  in  favour  of  liberty  of  com- 
merce ! 

If  in  Paris,  we  consider  ourselves,  in  all,  and  for  all, 
and  forever,  the  pattern-people,  at  London,  the  opinion  is 
not  less  exclusively  and  decidedly  in  favour  of  the  Eng- 
lish. In  London,  the  duke  of  Wellington  is  called  the 
conqueror  of  Napoleon,  which,  indeed,  is  true  to  the  letter, 
but  is  nevertheless  perfectly  ridiculous,  although  Lord 
Wellington  is  certainly  an  extraordinary  man.  I  have  seen 
Englishmen  pettishly  shake  their  head,  when  they  were 
told  that  the  sky  of  England  was  foggy ;  with  a  little 
malice,  one  might  drive  them  to  maintain,  that  they  need 
not  envy  the  climate  of  Italy,  and  that  even  the  atmosphere 
of  Manchester,  where  the  sight  of  the  sun  is  a  rarity,  has 


THE  FIRST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD.  103 

charms,  in  spite  of  the  slanders  of  its  detractors,  even  for 
those  who  have  breathed  the  air  of  Naples.  At  Madrid, 
that  heroic  people,  which  seems  to  be  awaking  at  last  from 
its  long  lethargy,  has  not  lost  the  habit  of  believing  in  the 
supremacy  of  Spain,  and  there,  they  dream  that  they  are 
yet  in  the  glorious  days  of  Charles  V.,  when  the  sun  never 
sat  on  the  Spanish  dominions.  And  we  can  pardon  this  in 
the  noble  Castilians ;  but  I  verily  believe,  also,  that  Don 
Pedro  and  Don  Miguel,  those  interminable  pretenders,  have 
each  an  official  journal  which  tells  them  daily,  that  the 
breathless  universe  has  its  eyes  fixed  on  their  ragged 
armies,  and  that  the  destinies  of  the  world  are  settled  at 
Santarem  and  Setubal.  At  Constantinople,  in  the  capital 
of  an  empire  which  exists  only  because  the  other  Euro- 
pean powers  cannot  agree  in  the  division  of  the  spoils, 
they  call  us  Christian  dogs.  In  Rome  the  people  still  call 
themselves  Romans,  and  this  ridiculous  misnomer  really 
makes  the  Transtiberine  populace  believe,  that  military 
glory  is  yet  the  lot  of  the  country,  and  that  the  Romans 
will  soon  resume  the  character  of  lords  of  the  world,  mag- 
nanimously raising  the  humble  and  crushing  the  pride  of 
the  powerful  (Parcere  siibjcctis,  &c.) !  In  Vienna,  on  the 
contrary,  everybody  thinks  that  Rome  is  no  longer  in 
Rome,  but  that  it  is,  of  right  and  in  fact,  in  the  archducal 
capital,  that  the  emperor  is  heir  by  lineal  descent  to 
Augustus  and  Trajan.  The  devise  of  an  early  prince  of 
the  house  of  Austria  (A.  E.  I.  O.  U.),*  attests  that  this 
pretension  is  almost  as  old  as  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  In 
Prussia,  meanwhile,  the  young  nobles,  proud  of  having 
studied  at  the  great  universities  of  Jena  and  Berlin,  and  of 
having  worn  the  sword  in  an  army  which  was  once  the 
great  Frederic's,  affect  an  utter  disdain  for  the  Austrians. 
Elated  by  the  rapid  extension  of  their  country,  which  has 


Austria. 


Austria  est  imperare  orbi  universe  ;  the  empire  of  the  world  belongs  to 
itria. 

• 


104  LETTER  IX. 

not,  however,  yet  reached  its  full  growth,  the  Prussians 
look  upon  their  sandy  land  as  the  cradle  of  a  new  civili- 
sation. It  seems  as  if  the  waters  of  the  Spree  had  some 
miraculous  qualities,  and  that  whoever  has  not  tasted  them, 
has  but  four  senses  instead  of  five.  At  St.  Petersburg  and 
Moscow,  no  one  doubts,  that  the  sword  of  the  emperor, 
thrown  into  the  scales  of  the  world's  destinies,  would  at 
once  overbear  the  opposite  balance.  Perhaps  we  of  West- 
ern Europe  have  done  our  part  in  filling  the  Russians  with 
these  high  notions  of  the  influence  of  the  Czar.  Thus 
in  Europe,  each  nation  arrogates  to  itself  the  first  rank,  and 
I  do  not  see  why  the  Americans  should  be  more  modest 
than  the  people  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
miracles  which  they  have  accomplished  in  fifty  years  give 
them  a  right  to  be  proud,  and  they,  also,  in  their  turn,  are 
persuaded  that  they  are  the  first  people  in  the  world,  and 
they  boast  loudly  of  their  preeminence. 

The  fact  is,  there  is  no  chosen  people,  on  whom  superi- 
ority is  entailed  for  ages.  The  Jewish  nation,  in  which  this 
notion  of  predestination  seemed  to  be  most  deeply  rooted, 
has  for  centuries  afforded  the  most  melancholy  refutation 
of  the  doctrine.  Since  the  age  of  Richelieu  and  the 
Revolution  of  1688,  that  is,  since  Spain  has  fallen  asleep, 
France  and  England  have  been  at  the  head  of  civilisation, 
and  have  divided  the  supremacy  between  themselves  ;  the 
one  ruling  by  the  theoretical,  the  other  by  the  practical  ; 
the  one  giving  the  tone  in  politics,  the  other  in  taste,  the 
arts,  and  manners.  But  what  were  France  and  England 
three  centuries  ago,  in  the  time  of  Charles  V.,  when  the 
generals  of  that  emperor  and  king  slew  Bayard  at  Re- 
becque,  made  Francis  I.  prisoner  at  Pavia,  and  the  Pope  in 
Rome,  whilst  four  thousand  miles  further  west,  Cortez  was 
conquering  for  him  the  proud  empire  of  Mont-ezuma  ? 
Prussia,  who  now  divides  with  Austria  the  dominion  of 
Germany,  and  who  is  worthy  of  that  dignity,  who  is  the 


THE  FIRST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD.  105 

youthful,  the  aspiring,  the  ambitious  Germany,  full  of  the 
future,  as  Austria  is  the  patriarchal,  sober,  prudent,  con- 
servative Germany,  clinging  to  the  past  and  the  old, — what 
was  Prussia  three  generations  ago  ?  What  shall  we  all  be, 
French,  English,  Prussians,  and  Austrians  three  centuries 
hence,  or  perhaps  one  hundred  years  hence  ?  Who  can 
say  that  some  northern  blast,  finding  us  divided,  and  en- 
feebled by  our  divisions,  will  not  have  laid  low  those  who 
are  now  so  high  and  haughty  ?  Who  knows  if  the  vi- 
gourous  race  which  is  now  bursting  forth  from  this  virgin 
soil,  will  not  then  have  passed  us  in  their  turn,  as  we  have 
outstripped  our  predecessors  ?  Who  can  foretell,  whether 
the  two  gigantic  figures  that  are  now  rising  above  the 
horizon,  the  one  in  the  East  with  one  foot  on  Moscow  and 
one  just  ready  to  fall  on  Constantinople,  the  other  in  the 
West,  as  yet  half  hidden  by  the  vast  forests  of  the  New 
World,  whose  huge  limbs  stretch  from  the  mouths  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  to  those  of  the  Mississippi ;  who  can  foresee, 
whether  these  youthful  Titans,  who  are  watching  each 
.other  across  the  Atlantic,  and  already  touch  hands  on  the 
Pacific,  will  not  soon  divide  the  empire  of  the  world  ? 

Civilisation  is  a  treasure,  to  which  each  generation  adds 
something  in  transmitting  it  to  its  heirs,  and  which  passes 
from  hand  to  hand,  from  people  to  people,  from  country  to 
country.  Setting  out  from  Asia  it  was  four  thousand 
years  in  reaching  the  borders  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Wo 
to  the  nations,  that  having  become  depositaries  of  the  trea- 
sure, instead  of  keeping  it  with  watchful  care  and  labour- 
ing to  increase  it,  lay  it  down  by  the  road-side,  and  waste 
their  time  and  strength  in  foolish  quarrels  ;  for  they  will 
soon  be  robbed  of  their  trust !  The  Americans  are  the 
most  enterprising  of  men,  and  the  most  aspiring  of  people  ; 
if  we  continue  to  be  swallowed  up  in  our  barren'  disputes, 
they  are  the  people  to  snatch  from  us  at  unawares  the  pre- 
14  ' 


106  LETTER  IX. 

cious  charge  of  the  destinies  of  our  race,  and  to  place  them* 
selves  at  the  head  of  its  march. 

Each  people  has  its  qualities,  which  are  developed  by 
education,  which  at  certain  moments  shine  with  peculiar 
brilliancy,  like  a  beacon  light  towards  which  the  eyes  of 
mankind  are  directed,  and  by  which  its  march  is  guided, 
and  which  always  command  the  esteem  or  love  or  respect 
of  others.  The  people  of  the  United  States  most  undeni- 
bly  have  theirs.  No  people  is  so  peculiarly  fitted  by  its 
intrinsic  character,  as  well  as  by  the  circumstances  of  the 
territory  and  the  condition  of  the  population,  for  demo- 
cratic institutions.  The  Americans  possess,  therefore,  in 
the  highest  degree,  the  better  features  of  democracy,  and 
they  have  also  its  inseparable  defects  ;  but  if  there  is  some- 
thing in  them  to  blame,  there  is  still  more  to  praise.  There 
is  much  here  for  a  European  to  learn,  who  should  come 
to  seek,  not  subjects  for  fault-finding,  satire,  and  sarcasm 
(which  have  become  vulgar  common-places,  since  the  small 
coin  of  Voltaire  and  Byron  has  passed  through  so  many 
hands),  but  positive  facts,  which  might  be  imitated  in  our 
old  countries,  with  the  necessary  modifications  required  by 
the  difference  between  our  circumstances  and  the  condi- 
tion of  America.  x  Almost  all  English  travellers  in  this 
country  have  seen  a  great  deal  that  was  bad  and  scarcely 
any  thing  good  ;  the  portrait  they  have  drawn  of  America 
and  the  Americans,  is  a  caricature,  which,  like  all  good 
caricatures,  has  some  resemblance  to  the  original.  The 
Americans  have  a  right  to  deny  the  jurisdiction  of  the  tri- 
bunal, for  they  have  a  right  to  be  tried  by  their  peers,  and 
it  does  not  belong  to  the  most  complete  aristocracy  in 
Europe,  the  English  aristocracy,  to  sit  in  judgment  on  a 
democracy.  Yet  all  the  English  travellers  in  America 
have  belonged  to  the  aristocracy  by  their  connexions  or 
their  opinions,  or  were  aspiring  to  it,  or  aped  its  habits  and 
judgments,  that  they  might  seem  to  belong  to  it. 


THE  FIRST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD.  107 

A  Yorkshire  farmer  or  a  Birmingham  mechanic  would 
certainly  pass  a  very  different  judgment  ;  they  would  pro- 
bably be  as  exclusively  disposed  to  praise,  as  the  most  dis- 
dainful tourists  have  been  to  blame.  And  the  farmers  and 
mechanics  count  for  something  in  the  numbers  of  the 
English  population  and  in  the  elements  of  the  British 
prosperity.  Suppose  an  Ohio  or  Illinois  farmer,  after  hav- 
ing sold  his  flour  and  salt  pork  to  advantage,  should  enact 
the  nabob  six  months  in  England,  and  on  his  return  should 
describe,  with  the  rude  eloquence  of  the  West,  the  dis- 
tress of  the  British  operatives,  the  corn  laws,  the  poor 
rates,  the  frightful  condition  of  the  Irish  peasantry,  the 
impressment  of  sailors,  the  sale  of  military  offices,  and  to 
complete  his  picture  of  manners,  should  add  a  boxing 
match,  a  scene  of  the  guests  at  a  dinner  rolling  dead-drunk 
under  the  table,  and  of  the  sale  of  a  wife  by  her  husband 
in  open  market ;  if  he  should  give  such  a  picture  to  his 
countrymen  as  a  political  and  moral  portrait  of  England, 
the  English  would  shrug  their  shoulders,  and  with  reason. 
Yet  his  story  would  be  founded  on  facts,  and  could  not  be 
said  to  be  actually  false  in  any  particular.  Now  such  a 
story  would  be  an  exact  counterpart  of  most  of  the  repre- 
sentations of  America  by  English  travellers.  Do  not  to 
others  what  you  would  not  have  others  do  to  you. 

There  is  one  thing  in  the  United  States  that  strikes  a 
stranger  on  stepping  ashore,  and  is  of  a  character  to  silence 
his  sentiments  of  national  pride,  particularly  if  he  is  an 
Englishman ;  it  is  the  appearance  of  general  ease  in  the 
condition  of  the  people  of  this  country.  While  European 
communities  are  more  or  less  cankered  with  the  sore  of 
pauperism,  for  which  their  ablest  statesmen  have  as  yet  been 
able  to  find  no  healing  balm,  there  are  here  no  paupers,  at 
least  not  in  the  Northern  and  Western  States,  which  have 
protected  themselves  from  the  leprosy  of  slavery.  If  a 
few  individuals  are  seen,  they  are  only  an  imperceptible 


108  LETTER  IX. 

minority  of  dissolute  or  improvident  persons,  commonly 
people  of  colour,  or  some  newly  landed  emigrants,  who 
have  not  been  able  to  adopt  industrious  habits.  Nothing  is 
more  easy  than  to  live  and  to  live  well  by  labour.  Objects 
of  the  first  necessity,  bread,  meat,  sugar,  tea,  coffee,  fuel, 
are  in  general  cheaper  here  than  in  France,  and  wages  are 
double  or  triple.  I  happened,  a  few  days  ago,  to  be  on 
the  line  of  a  railroad  in  process  of  construction,  where 
they  were  throwing  up  some  embankments.  This  sort  of 
labour,  which  merely  requires  force,  without  skill,  is  com- 
monly done  in  the  United  States  by  Irish  new-comers,  who 
have  no  resource  but  their  arm,  no  quality  but  muscular 
strength.  These  Irish  labourers  are  fed  and  lodged,  and 
hear  their  bill  of  fare ;  three  meals  a  day,  and  at  each 
meal  plenty  of  meat  and  wheat  bread  ;  coffee  and  sugar  at 
two  meals,  and  butter*  once  a  day ;  in  the  course  of  the 
day,  from  six  to  eight  glasses  of  whiskey  are  given  them 
according  to  the  state  of  the  weather.  Beside  which  they 
receive  in  money  40  cents  a  day  under  the  most  unfavour- 
able circumstances,  often  from  60  to  75  cents.  In  France 
the  same  labour  is  worth  about  24  cents  a  day  the  labour- 
ers finding  themselves. 

This  positive  and  undeniable  fact  of  the  general  ease, 
is  connected  with  another,  which  gives  it  a  singular  im- 
portance in  the  eyes  of  a  European,  who  is  the  friend  of 
progressive  reforms,  and  the  enemy  of  violence  ;  the  prev- 
alence of  radicalism  in  politics.  The  term  democrat, 
which  elsewhere  would  fill  even  the  republicans  with  terror, 
is  here  greeted  with  acclamations,  and  the  name  of  Demo- 
cratic is  zealously  claimed  by  every  party  as  its  exclusive 
property.  But  this  is  the  only  kind  of  property  which  is 
called  in  question  ;  it  is  true  that  material  property  rapidly 
disappears  in  this  country,  unless  it  is  preserved  by  the 

*  Butter  is  dearer  in  the  United  States  than  in  France. 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN.  109 

most  constant  vigilance,  and  renewed  with  untiring  indus- 
try. But  as  long  as  it  exists,  it  is  the  object  of  profound 
respect,  which,  I  must  confess,  has  rather  surprised  me. 
I  should  have  expected  that  the  social  theory  would  have 
borrowed  some  notions  from  the  predominant  political 
theory ;  but  there  are  those  in  Europe,  who  are  not  there 
considered  the  boldest  speculators  on  this  subject,  who  here 
would  be  looked  upon  as  the  most  audacious  innovators. 
From  this  simple  statement,  it  seems  natural  to  infer,  that 
valuable  lessons  are  to  be  learned  here  by  those  who  seek 
to  solve  the  great  question  that  now  agitates  Europe,  the 
amelioration  of  the  greatest  number.  It  would  be  inte- 
resting to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  this  state  of  things, 
and  to  examine  whether,  with  certain  modifications,  it 
could  not  be  transferred  to  Europe,  and  particularly  to 
France. 


LETTER   X. 


THE    YANKEE    AND    THE    VIRGINIAN. 

CHARLESTON,  MAY  28,  1834. 

THE  great  flood  of  civilisation,  which  has  poured  over 
the  vast,  regions  of  the  West,  in  the  south  and  the  north, 
from  the  great  lakes  to  the  Cape  of  Florida,  has  flowed 
on  with  a  wonderful  power  and  an  admirable  regularity. 
Emigration  has  taken  place,  along  the  whole  line  of  march, 
from  east  to  west.  The  inhabitants  of  New  England,* 

*  The  name  of  Yankee  was  first  applied  in  derision,  but  the  New  Eng- 
landers,  thinking  that  they  have  ennobled  it,  have  adopted  it. 


110  LETTER  X. 

after  having  first  spread  themselves  over  their  original  ter- 
ritory, and  founded  the  States  of  Maine  and  Vermont, 
have  thrown  themselves  into  the  State  of  New  York  ; 
thence,  keeping  as  much  as  possible  along  the  northern 
frontier  of  the  United  States,  they  have  extended  all 
along  the  coasts  of  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Erie,  and  over- 
run the  vast  delta  comprised  between  the  Ohio  and  the 
Upper  Mississippi,  which  now  contains  the  States  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois,  and  the  Territory  of  Michigan.  The 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania  emigrants  have  spread  them- 
selves comparatively  little  beyond  the  limits  of  their  own 
territory,  which  are  very  extensive,  and  were  thinly  peo- 
pled in  1783.  They  have,  however,  furnished  a  small 
contingent  to  the  great  army  of  emigration  from  New 
England,  and  have  helped  to  occupy  the  vast  tract  above- 
mentioned.  Virginia,  after  having  settled  her  western  part 
with  her  own  sons,  has  given  birth  to  Kentucky,  and  then, 
acting  the  same  part  in  the  south  as  New  England  in  the 
north,  has  sent  forth  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  those  numer- 
ous swarms  that  have  invaded  the  southwest.  North 
Carolina  has  taken  part  in  this  task,  and  has  beside  a  child 
of  her  own  in  Tennessee.  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
have  contributed  to  create  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  and 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky  have  in  turn  furnished  offsets 
for  Missouri  and  Arkansas. 

Thus  the  States  in  which  there  are  no  slaves,  have 
brought  forth  a  family  of  truly  democratic  republics,  that 
is  to  say,  with  an  essentially  farming  population,  holding 
no  slaves,  and,  excepting  the  vine,  cultivating  all  the  pro- 
ductions of  temperate  Europe.  These  young  States  are 
founded  on  equality  and  the  subdivision  of  property,  for 
most  of  the  farms  do  not  exceed  80  to  160  acres.  The 
Southern  States,  on  the  other  hand,  have  created  aristo- 
cratical  republics,  based  on  slavery  and  the  accumulation 
of  property  in  a  few  hands,  still  more  exclusively  agricui- 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN. 


Ill 


tural  than  the  north-western  States,  and  chiefly  occupied 
in  cultivating  cotton,  a  precious  commodity,  which  now 
furnishes  for  exportation,  inclusive  of  what  is  consumed 
in  the  North,  an  annual  value  of  40  or  50  million  dollars.* 
Thus  amongst  all  the  columns  of  emigration,  two  particu- 
larly attract  attention,  and  form  of  themselves  the  main 
body  of  the  army,  the  others  are  only  auxiliaries  ;  these 
two  great  masses  are  the  New  England  and  the  Virginia 
columns. 

That  part  of  Virginia  which  was  most  peopled  during 
the  war  of  Independence  has  a  low  and  nearly  level  sur- 
face, and  a  sandy,  and  in  general,  very  poor  soil.  Along  the 
rivers  there  are  tracts  formerly  productive,  but  even  these 
have  been  exhausted  by  the  cultivation  of  tobacco.  The 
proprietors  of  these  estates  must  have  been  early  led  to 
think  of  quitting  their  plantations  for  the  fertile  lands  of 
Kentucky,  then  occupied,  or  rather  overrun,  by  warlike 
savages,  of  whom  they  were  the  favourite  hunting-ground. 
Some  bold  and  hardy  pioneers,  at  the  head  of  whom  was 

Exports  of  cotton  from  the  United  States.     (DM.   146,  Ho.  of  Reps. 


Sess.  24 

Cong.) 

Years. 

Pounds. 

Value. 

Years. 

Pounds. 

Value. 

1792 

142,000 

51,470 

1822 

144,700,000 

24,000,000 

1793 

500,000 

160,000 

1823 

173,700,000 

23,500,000 

1794 

1,660,000 

500,000 

1824 

142,100,000 

21,500,000 

Mean        766,600         237,000         Mean        153,700,000        23,000,000 


1802  27,500,000 

1803  41,100,000 

1804  38,100,000 


5,250,000 
7,750,000 
7,750,000 


1832 
1833 
1834 


322,250,000  31,750,000 
324,500,000  3(5,000,000 
384,750,000  49,500,000 


Mean  35,566,000  6,920,000  Mean  343,800,000  39,060,000 
The  domestic  consumption  at  present  amounts  to  about  250,000  bales,  or 
about  100  million  pounds,  of  the  value  of  about  ten  millions.  The  crop 
of  1835  was  1,350,000  bales  or  about  500  million  pounds,  of  the  value  of 
60  millions.  The  yearly  value  of  the  wine  made  in  France  is  about  twice 
that  sum,  but  the  value  of  the  export  does  not  exceed  thirteen  and  a  half 
million  dollars. 


1 12  LETTER  X. 

Boon,  first  ventured  across  the  mountains  with  their  rifles, 
and  bravely  sustained  a  bloody  contest  with  the  Indians. 
After  many  desperate  fights,  in  which  more  than  one  un- 
known hero  fell  under  the  bullet  or  the  tomahawk  of  some 
red-skinned  Hector,  after  numerous  assaults,  in  which 
more  than  one  matron  enacted  the  part  of  our  Jeanne 
Hachette,*  after  many  alarms  and  much  suffering,  the 
genius  of  civilisation  carried  it.  At  the  call  of  the  pio- 
neers, roused  by  the  fame  of  their  exploits,  the  planters 
of  the  coast  set  out  on  their  pilgrimage  ;  arriving  with 
their  slaves,  they  cleared  and  cultivated  large  tracts,  in  the 
midst  of  which  they  led  a  patriarchal  life,  surrounded  by 
their  servants  and  flocks,  following  with  ardour  the  chase 
of  wild  beasts,  and  sometimes  of  Indians,  and  too  often 
spending  the  proceeds  of  their  crop  in  betting  on  the  speed 
of  their  horses,  of  which  they  are  very  proud,  and  whose 
pedigree  is  better  known  to  them  than  their  own.  More 
lately,  when  the  demand  for  cotton  had  increased,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  improvements  in  machinery,  and  the 
steamboat  had  opened  the  way  into  the  heart  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley,  they  have  removed  southwards,  always  taking 
their  slaves  with  them ;  a  prospect  of  future  wealth  and 
prosperity  was  thus  opened  for  the  south. 

The  industrious  sons  of  New  England  likewise  bade 
farewell  to  the  rocky  and  ungrateful  soil  of  their  birth- 
place ;  loading  a  wagon  with  a  plough,  a  bed,  a  barrel  of 
salt  meat,  the  indispensable  supply  of  tea  and  molasses, 
a  Bible  and  a  wife,  and  with  his  axe  on  his  shoulder,  the 
Yankee  sets  out  for  the  West,  without  a  servant,  without 
an  assistant,  often  without  a  companion,  to  build  himself  a 

*  [This  French  heroine  distinguished  herself  at  the  siege  of  Beauvais,  in 
1472,  when  she  snatched  a  standard  from  the  hands  of  the  assailants.  Her 
real  name  seems  to  have  been  Fourquet,  that  of  Hachette  (Hatchet)  having 
been  probably  assumed  or  given  to  her,  like  those  of  Wat  Tyler  and  Jack 
Carter,  of  English  history.— TRANS.] 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN.  H3 

log  hut,  six  hundred  miles  from  his  father's  roof,  and  clear 
away  a  spot  for  a  farm  in  the  midst  of  the  boundless  forest. 
The  first  of  these  wanderers  went  from  Connecticut,  the 
land  of  steady  habits,  of  Puritans  among  Puritans. 

The  Virginian  and  the  Yankee  have  planted  themselves 
in  the  wilderness,  each  in  a  manner  conformable  to  his 
nature  and  condition.  The  part  they  have  taken  in  found- 
ing the  new  States  of  the  West,  explains  the  fact  so  often 
mentioned  of  fifty  or  sixty  members  of  Congress  being 
natives  of  Virginia  or  Connecticut.  In  this  conquest  over 
nature,  Europe  has  not  remained  an  idle  spectator ;  she 
has  sent  forth  vigorous  labourers,  who  have  co-operated 
with  the  sons  of  New  England,  for  slavery  drives  them 
from  the  men  of  the  South.  Many  Irish  and  Scotch,  a 
number  of  Germans,  Swiss,  and  some  French,  are  now 
settled  in  Michigan,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  The 
traveller  who  descends  the  Ohio,  passes  on  the  way  Galli- 
polis,  a  French  settlement,  Vevay,  a  Swiss  village,  and 
Marietta,  so  called  in  honour  of  Marie  Antoinette.*  The 
terminations  in  burg  are  scattered  amongst  Indian  names, 
Jacksonvilles,  Washingtons,  and  Columbias.  But  the  co- 
operation of  Europeans  does  not  deprive  the  Yankees  of 
the  principal  share  in  the  honour  of  the  work  ;  they  began 
it,  they  have  borne  and  still  bear  the  burden  and  heat  of 
the  day.  In  comparison  with  them,  the  European  has 
been  only  the  eleventh-hour-man,  the  apprentice,  the  hire- 
ling. The  fusion  of  the  European  with  the  Yankee  takes 
place  but  slowly,  even  on  the  new  soil  of  the  West ;  for 
the  Yankee  is  not  a  man  of  promiscuous  society ;  he  be- 
lieves that  Adam's  oldest  son  was  a  Yankee.  Enough, 
however,  of  foreign  blood  has  been  mingled  with  the 

*  [If  the  author  means  to  imply  that  it  was  so  called  by  French  settlers 
he  is  in  error,  as  it  is  well  known  to  have  been  founded  and  named  by  the 
first  New  England  colony  in  Ohio.  Neither  is  he  correct,  if,  as  seems  to  be 
the  case,  he  supposes  all  the  burgs  to  be  German  towns. — TRANS.] 

15 


114  LETTER  X. 

Yankee  blood  to  modify  the  primitive  character  of  the 
New  England  race,  and  to  form  a  third  American  type, 
that  of  the  West,  whose  features  are  not  yet  sharply  de- 
fined, but  are  daily  assuming  more  distinctness ;  this  type 
is  characterised  by  its  athletic  forms  and  ambitious  pre- 
tensions, and  seems  destined  ultimately  to  become  supe- 
rior to  the  others. 

The  Yankee  and  the  Virginian  are  very  unlike  each 
other ;  they  have  no  great  love  for  each  other,  arid  are 
often  at  variance.  They  are  the  same  men  who  cut  each 
other's  throats  in  England,  under  the  name  of  Roundheads 
and  Cavaliers.  In  England,  they  patched  up  a  peace  by 
the  interposition  of  a  third  dynasty,  which  was  neither 
Stuart  nor  Cromwell.  In  America,  where  there  was  no 
power  to  mediate  between  them,  they  would  have  devoured 
each  other  as  they  did  in  England,  had  not  Providence 
thrown  them  wide  apart,  one  party  at  the  south,  the  other 
at  the  north,  leaving  between  them  the  territory  now 
occupied  by  the  justes-milieux  States  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  with  their  satellites,  New  Jersey  and  Dela- 
ware. 

The  Virginian  of  pure  race  is  frank,  hearty,  open,  cor- 
dial in  his  manners,  noble  in  his  sentiments,  elevated  in 
his  notions,  he  is  a  worthy  descendant  of  the  English 
gentleman.  Surrounded,  from  infancy,  by  his  slaves,  who 
relieve  him  from  all  personal  exertion,  he  is  rather  indis- 
posed to  activity,  and  is  even  indolent.  He  is  generous 
and  profuse ;  around  him,  but  rather  in  the  new  States 
than  in  impoverished  Virginia,  abundance  reigns.  When 
the  cotton  crop  has  been  good  and  the  price  is  high,  he 
invites  everybody,  excepting  only  the  slaves  that  cultivate 
his  fields,  to  partake  in  his  wealth,  without  much  thought 
of  next  year's  produce.  To  him,  the  practice  of  hospitality 
is  at  once  a  duty,  a  pleasure,  and  a  happiness.  Like  the 
Eastern  patriarchs  or  Homer's  heroes,  he  spits  an  ox  to 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN.  H5 

regale  the  guest  whom  Providence  sends  him  and  an  old 
friend  recommends  to  his  attention,  and  to  moisten  this 
solid  repast,  he  offers  Madeira,  of  which  he  is  as  proud  as 
of  his  horses,  which  has  been  twice  to  the  East  Indies, 
and  has  been  ripening  full  twenty  years.  He  loves  the 
institutions  of  his  country,  yet  he  shows  with  pride  his 
family  plate,  the  arms  on  which,  half  effaced  by  time, 
attest  his  descent  from  the  first  colonists,  and  prove  that 
his  ancestors  were  of  a  good  family  in  England.  When 
his  mind  has  been  cultivated  by  study,  and  a  tour  in 
Europe  has  polished  his  manners  and  refined  his  imagina- 
tion, there  is  no  place  in  the  world  in  which  he  would  not 
appear  to  advantage,  no  destiny  too  high  for  him  to  reach  ; 
he  is  one  of  those,  whom  a  man  is  glad  to  have  as  a  com- 
panion, and  desires  as  a  friend.  Ardent  and  warm-hearted, 
he  is  of  the  block  from  which  great  orators  are  made.  He 
is  better  able  to  command  men,  than  to  conquer  nature 
and  subdue  the  soil.  When  he  has  a  certain  degree  of 
the  spirit  of  method,  and,  I  will  not  say  of  will,  (for  he 
has  enough  of  th°,t),  but  of  that  active  perseverance  so 
common  among  his  brethren  of  the  North,  he  has  all  the 
qualities  needful  to  form  a  great  statesman. 

The  Yankee,  on  the  contrary,  is  reserved,  cautious, 
distrustful ;  he  is  thoughtful  and  pensive,  but  equable ; 
his  manners  are  without  grace,  modest  but  dignified,  cold, 
and  often  unprepossessing  ;  he  is  narrow  in  his  ideas,  but 
practical,  and  possessing  the  idea  of  the  proper,  he  never 
rises  to  the  grand.  He  has  nothing  chivalric  about  him, 
and  yet  he  is  adventurous,  and  he  loves  a  roving  life.  His 
imagination  is  active  and  original,  producing,  however,  not 
poetry,  but  drollery.  The  Yankee  is  the  laborious  ant ; 
he  is  industrious  and  sober,  frugal,  and,  on  the  sterile  soil 
of  New  England,  niggardly  ;  transplanted  to  the  promised 
land  in  the  West,  he  continues  moderate  in  his  habits,  but 
less  inclined  to  count  the  cents.  In  New  England  he  has 


116  LETTER  X. 

a  large  share  of  prudence,  but  once  thrown  into  the  midst 
of  the  treasures  of  the  West,  he  becomes  a  speculator,  a 
gambler  even,  although  he  has  a  great  horror  of  cards, 
dice,  and  all  games  of  hazard  and  even  of  skill,  except  the 
innocent  game  at  bowls.  He  is  crafty,  sly.  always  calcu- 
lating, boasting  even  of  the  tricks  which  he  plays  upon 
the  careless  or  trusting  buyer,  because  he  looks  upon  them 
as  marks  of  his  superior  sagacity,  and  well  provided  with 
mental  reservations  to  lull  his  conscience.  With  all  his 
nice  subtleties,  he  is,  nevertheless,  expeditious  in  business, 
because  he  knows  the  value  of  time.  His  house  is  a  sanc- 
tuary, which  he  does  not  open  to  the  profane  ;  he  is  little 
given  to  hospitality,  or  rather  he  displays  it  only  on  rare  oc- 
casions, and  then  he  does  so  on  a  great  scale.  He  is  a  ready 
speaker,  and  a  close  reasoner,  but  not  a  brilliant  orator. 
For  a  statesman,  he  wants  that  greatness  of  mind  and  soul 
which  enables  a  man  to  enter  into  and  love  another's  na- 
ture, and  leads  him  naturally  to  consult  his  neighbour's 
good,  in  consulting  his  own.  He  is  individualism  incarnate  ; 
in  him  the  spirit  of  locality  and  division  is  carried  to  the 
utmost.*  But  if  he  is  not  a  great  statesman,  he  is  an  able 
administrator,  an  unrivalled  man  of  business.  If  he  is  not 
suited  to  command  men,  he  has  no  equal  in  acting  upon 
things,  in  combining,  arranging,  and  giving  them  a  value. 
There  are  nowhere  merchants  of  more  consummate  ability 
than  those  of  Boston. 

But  it  is  particularly  as  the  colonist  of  the  wilderness, 
that  the  Yankee  is  admirable  ;  fatigue  has  no  hold  on  him. 
He  has  not,  like  the  Spaniard,  the  capacity  to  bear  hunger 
and  thirst,  but  he  has  the  much  superior  faculty  of  finding, 
at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  something  to  eat  and  to  drink, 


*  In  Massachusetts,  with  a  population  of  610,000  souls,  the  House  of 
Representatives  consists  of  about  600  members;  the  most  petty  village  must 
have  its  Representative. 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN.  117 

and  of  being  always  able  to  contrive  a  shelter  from  the 
cold,  first  for  his  wife  and  children,  and  afterward  for  him- 
self.    He  grapples  with  nature  in  close  fight,  and  more 
unyielding  than  she,  subdues  her  at  last,  obliging  her  to 
surrender  at  discretion,  to  yield  whatever  he  wills,  and  to 
take  the  shape  he  chooses.     Like   Hercules,  he  conquers 
the  hydra  of  the  pestilential  morass,  and  chains  the  rivers  ; 
more  daring  than  Hercules,  he  extends  his  dominion  not 
only  over  the  land,  but  over  the  sea ;  he  is  the  best  sailor 
in  the  world,  the  ocean  is  his  tributary,  and  enriches  him 
with  the  oil  of  her  whales  and  with  all  her  lesser  fry.    More 
wise  than  the  hero  of  the  twelve  labours,  he  knows  no 
Omphale  that  is  able  to  seduce,  no  Dejanira,  whose  poi- 
soned gifts  can  balk  his  searching  glance.     In  this  respect 
he  is  rather  a  Ulysses,  who  has  his  Penelope,  counts  upon 
her  faith,  and  remains  steadfastly  true  to  her.     He  does 
not  even  need  to  stop  his  ears,  when  he  passes  near  the 
Syrens,  for  in  him  the  tenderest  passions  are  deadened  by 
religious  austerity  and  devotion  to  his  business.     Like 
Ulysses  in  another  point,  he  has  a  bag  full  of  shifts  ;  over- 
taken at  night  by  a  storm  in  the  woods,  in  a  half  hour, 
with  no  other  resource  than  his  knife,  he  will  have  made 
a  shelter  for  himself  and  his  horse.     In  winter,  caught  in 
one  of  those  snow-storms,  which  are  unknown  among  us, 
he  will  construct  a  sled  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and 
keep  on  his  way,  like  an  Indian,  by  watching  the  bark  of 
the  trees.     Thus  to  the  genius  of  business,  by  means  of 
which  he  turns  to  profit  whatever  the  earth  yields  him,  he 
joins  the  genius  of  industry,  which  makes  her  prolific,  and 
that  of  mechanical  skill,  which  fashions  her  produce  to  his 
wants.     He  is  incomparable  as  a  pioneer,  unequalled  as  a 
settler  of  the  wilderness. 

The  Yankee  has  set  his  mark  on  the  United  States 
during  the  last  half  century.     He  has  been  eclipsed  by 


118  LETTER  X. 

Virginia  in  the  counsels  of  the  nation  ;*  but  he  has  in 
turn  had  the  upper  hand  throughout  the  country,  and 
eclipsed  her  on  her  own  soil ;  for  in  order  to  arouse  the 
Virginian  from  his  southern  indolence,  it  has  been  neces- 
sary that  the  Yankee  should  come  to  set  him  an  example 
of  activity  and  enterprise  at  his  own  door.  But  for  the 
Yankee,  the  vast  cotton  plantations  of  the  South  would 
still  be  an  uncultivated  waste.  It  was  a  Yankee,  Ely 
.Whitney,  who,  toward  the  end  of  the  last  century,  inven- 
ted the  cotton-gin,  which  has  made  the  fortune  of  the 
South.  To  give  a  speculation  success  in  the  South,  some 
Yankee  must  have  come  a  thousand  miles  to  suggest  the 
idea  to  the  natives,  and  carry  off  the  profit  before  their 
eyes.  New  England  has  given  only  two  Presidents  to 
the  Union,  both  popular  on  the  eve  of  their  election,  both 
unpopular  on  the  morrow,  both  rejected  at  the  end  of  their 
first  term,  while  all  the  others  have  been  natives  of  Vir- 
ginia or  South  Carolina,  and  have  been  rechosen  for  a 
second  term.  But  then  what  a  revenge  has  she  taken  in 
business  matters,  at  the  North  and  the  South,  in  the  East 
as  well  as  the  West !  Here  the  Yankee  is  a  true  Marquis 
of  Carabas.  At  Baltimore  as  well  as  at  Boston,  in  New 
Orleans  as  well  as  at  Salem,  in  New  York  as  well  as  at 
Portland,  if  a  merchant  is  mentioned  who  has  made  and 
kept  a  large  fortune  by  sagacity  and  forecast,  you  will  find 
that  he  is  a  Yankee.  If  you  pass  a  plantation  in  the 
South  in  better  order  than  the  others,  with  finer  avenues, 
with  the  negroes'  cabins  better  arranged  and  more  comfort- 
able, you  will  be  told,  "  Oh  !  that  is  a  Yankee's ;  he  is  a 
smart  man  /"  In  a  village  in  Missouri,  by  the  side  of  a 

*  At  this  time,  for  instance,  ten  Senators  out  of  48  are  natives  of  Virginia. 
Of  seven  presidents  four  have  been  from  Virginia.  Many  of  the  members 
of  Congress  are  natives  of  New  England,  and  particularly  of  Connecticut, 
but  they  are  generally  laborious,  second-rate  men,  rather  than  men  of  influ- 
ence and  superior  abilities. 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN.  H9 

house  with  broken  windows,  dirty  in  its  outward  appear- 
ance, around  the  door  of  which  a  parcel  of  ragged  chil- 
dren are  quarrelling  and  fighting,  you  may  see  another, 
freshly  painted,  surrounded  by  a  simple,  but  neat  and  nice- 
ly white-washed  fence,  with  a  dozen  of  carefully  trimmed 
trees  about  it,  and  through  the  windows  in  a  small  room 
shining  with  cleanliness,  you  may  espy  some  nicely  combed 
little  boys,  and  some  young  girls  dressed  in  almost  the 
last  Paris  fashion.  Both  houses  belong  to  farmers,  but  one 
of  them  is  from  North  Carolina,  and  the  other  from  New 
England.  On  the  western  rivers,  you  will  hear  a  boat 
mentioned  which  never  meets  with  an  accident,  and  in 
which  all  travellers  and  merchants  are  eager  to  take  their 
passage  ;  the  master  is  a  Yankee.  Along  side  of  the  levee 
at  New  Orleans,  you  may  be  struck  with  the  fine  appear- 
ance of  a  ship,  which  all  the  passers-by  stop  to  admire  ; 
the  master  is  also  a  Yankee. 

The  preeminence  of  the  Yankee  in  the  colonisation  of 
the  country,  has  made  him  the  arbiter  of  manners  and  ,-••• 
customs.  It  is  from  him  that  the  country  has  taken  a 
general  hue  of  austere  severity,  that  is  religious  and  even 
bigoted  ;  it  is  through  him  that  all  sorts  of  amusements, 
which  .among  us  are  considered  as  innocent  relaxations, 
are  here  proscribed  as  immoral  pleasures.  It  is  he  that  has 
introduced  the  Prison  Reform,  multiplied  schools,  founded 
Temperance  Societies  (See  Note  13).  It  is  through  his 
agency,  with  his  money,  that  the  Missionaries  are  endeav- 
ouring silently  to  found  colonies  in  the  South  Seas,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Union.  If  we  wished  to  form  a  single  type, 
representing  the  American  character  of  the  present  mo- 
ment as  a  single  whole,  it  would  be  necessary  to  take  at 
least  three-fourths  of  the  Yankee  race,  and  to  mix  with  it 
hardly  one  fourth  of  the  Virginian.  The  physical  labour 
of  colonisation  is  now  nearly  brought  to  an  end  ;  the 
physical  basis  of  society  is  laid.  On  this  base  it  becomes 


120  LETTER  X. 

necessary  to  raise  a  social  structure  of  yet  unknown  form, 
but  which,  I  am  fully  convinced,  will  be  on  a  new  plan, 
for  all  the  materials  are  new  ;  and  besides,  neither  humani- 
ty nor  Providence  ever  repeats  itself.  Which  of  the  two 
races  is  best  suited  to  execute  this  new  task  ?  I  cannot 
tell ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Virginian  is  now  about 
to  take  his  turn,  and  that  in  the  phase  which  the  United 
States  are  now  on  the  point  of  entering,  the  social  quali- 
ties of  the  Virginian  will  obtain  the  superiority,  that  na- 
turally belonged  to  the  laborious  Yankee  in  the  period  of 
settling  the  forest.  In  a  word,  I  believe,  that,  if  the 
Union  lasts,  and  the  West  continues  to  form  a  united  mass 
from  the  falls  of  Niagara  to  New  Orleans,  this  third  type  of 
the  west,  which  is  now  forming  and  already  aspires  to 
rule  over  the  others,  will  take  a  great  deal  from  the  Vir- 
ginian and  very  little  from  the  Yankee. 

It  is  no  small  advantage  to  a  people  to  combine  within 
itself  two  types  with  different  characteristics,  when  they 
unite  harmoniously  in  composing  a  common  national  cha- 
racter. A  people  of  which  all  the  individual  members  are 
referrible  to  a  single  type,  is  among  nations  what  an  un- 
married man  is  among  individuals  ;  it  is  a  sort  of  hermit, 
its  life  is  monotonous  ;  the  strongest  and  sweetest  feelings 
of  human  nature  are  dormant  in  it ;  it  continues  stationa- 
ary  ;  there  is  nothing  to  spur  it  forward.  Such  was  an- 
cient Egypt.  A  people  consisting  of  two  types,  on  the 
contrary,  when  neither  has  an  oppressive  superiority  over 
the  other,  enjoys  a  complete  existence  ;  its  life  is  a  perpe- 
tual interchange  of  ideas  and  sensations,  like  that  of  a  mar- 
ried pair.  It  has  the  power  of  reproducing  and  regener- 
ating itself.  Each  of  the  two  natures  alternately  acts  and 
reposes  itself,  without  ever  being  inactive.  By  turns  each 
gains  the  superiority  and  yields  to  the  other ;  and  thus 
according  to  circumstances,  different  qualities  come  into 
play.  The  two  natures  mutually  support  and  relieve 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN.  121 

each  other,  they  stimulate  each  other,  and  through  this 
wholesome  rivalry,  the  nation  that  combines  them  in  itself, 
reaches  high  destinies. 

History  shows  that  the  progress  of  humanity  has  been 
constantly  promoted  by  the  reciprocal  action  and  reaction 
of  two  natures,  or  two  races,  sometimes  friends,  oftener 
enemies  or  rivals.  The  most  general  fact  in  the  history 
of  our  civilisation  is  the  struggle  between  the  East  and 
the  West,  from  the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts  and  the  war 
of  Troy,  to  the  battle  of  Lepanto  and  the  siege  of  Vienna 
by  the  Turks.  In  this  great  drama,  it  was  not  merely  to 
shed  rivers  of  blood,  that  Providence  has  dashed  against 
each  other  Europeans  and  Asiatics,  Greeks  and  Persians, 
Romans,  Carthaginians,  and  Parthians,  Saracens  and 
Franks,  Venitians,  Turks,  and  Poles ;  blows  have  not 
been  the  only  thing  exchanged  between  Europe  and  the 
Orient.  If  you  wish  to  know  what  the  West  has  gained 
from  contact  with  the  East,  even  when,  they  met  sword 
in  hand,  look  around  you ;  most  of  the  fruit  trees  that  en- 
rich your  fields,  the  vine  which  gladdens  the  heart,  the 
silk  and  cotton  that  adorn  your  houses  and  your  persons, 
these  are  the  spoils  of  your  Eastern  wars  ;  sugar  and  coffee, 
the  cultivation  of  which  has  changed  the  political  balance 
of  the  world,  were  brought  into  Europe  from  the  East,  the 
one  by  yourselves,  the  other  by  the  Arabs,  when  they 
made  themselves  masters  of  Spain.  The  mariner's  com- 
pass, which  has  given  a  new  continent  to  civilisation,  and 
established  the  dominion  of  man  over  the  before  uncon- 
quered  deep,  was  the  gift  of  the  East.  Your  arts  and  your 
sciences  are  of  Oriental  origin  ;  the  secrets  of  Algebra  were 
stolen  from  the  Moors  of  Spain  by  a  monk  ;  your  system 
of  numeration,  the  basis  of  all  your  financial  improve- 
ments, bears  the  name  of  the  Arabs  ;  your  chivalry  was 
brought  from  Asia  by  the  Crusaders.  Christianity,  the 
mother  of  modern  Europe,  would  not  have  existed  in 
16 


122  LETTER  X. 

the  West,  had  not  the  Roman  legions  conquered  Judea 
which  contained  its  germ,  had  not  the  Roman  empire  con- 
tained the  school  of  Alexandria  in  which  that  germ  could 
put  forth,  and  had  not  the  Rome  of  the  Caesars  been 
raised  as  a  pedestal  for  the  successors  of  St.  Peter,  from 
which  they  might  rule  over  the  East  and  the  West. 

Behold  the  Roman  people  ;  its  noble  career  was  a  con- 
tinual succession  of  wars,  followed  by  as  many  incorpora- 
tions of  the  conquered,  alliances,  real  marriages,  which 
always  give  it  a  new  vigour.  It  begins  with  the  double 
figure  of  Romulus  and  Remus ;  then  follow  the  Romans 
and  Sabines,  then  Rome  and  Alba,  next  Rome  and  the 
Latins,  and  next  Rome  and  Carthage.  It  might  be  called 
a  young  sultan,  who  carries  off  a  captive  at  the  point  of 
the  sword,  and  makes  her  his  favourite  until  he  grows 
tired  of  her,  or  until  he  finds  another  more  worthy  of  his 
love.  It  goes  on  in  this  way,  changing,  and  daily  rising 
in  the  successive  subjects  of  its  choice,  until  it  meets  with 
Greece,  which  becomes  not  an  object  of  a  passing  caprice, 
but  a  favorite  sultana.  This  Union  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  natures  gave  its  splendour  to  imperial  Rome,  and 
rest  to  the  world.  Its  destiny  once  entwined  with  that  of 
Greece,  the  Roman  people  paused  to  enjoy  ;  and  with  this 
purpose,  substituted  the  rule  of  the  Caesars  for  the  republi- 
can constitution,  and  Greek  rhetoricians  and  players,  and 
emperors,  voluptuous  like  the  disciples  of  Epicurus,  or 
philosophers,  like  Pericles,  for  the  stern  and  severe  aris- 
tocracy of  earlier  days.  What  is  the  history  of  Greece, 
but  a  continual  oscillation  between  the  austere  Lacedas- 
mon  and  the  brilliant  Athens,  between  the  country  of 
Lycurgus  and  Leonidas,  and  that  of  Solon,  Aspasia,  and 
Alcibiades.  United,  they  acquired  an  indomitable  energy, 
and  supported  the  shock  of  all  Asia.  Unfortunately  they 
had  too  little  feeling  of  a  common  nationality,  and  too 
much  of  local  jealousy ;  almost  perpetually  divided,  they 


THE  YANKEE  AND  THE  VIRGINIAN.  123 

never  completely  extended  their  sway  over  Greece  itself, 
and  when  the  Greek  race  was  about  to  reach  its  zenith, 
neither  was  destined  to  lead  it  thither,  but  Providence 
raised  up  a  man  in  the  North,  before  whom  the  earth  was 
silent. 

Whilst  a  nation  comprises  an  indefinite  number  of  types 
mixed  together  without  order  and  without  rank,  it  resem- 
bles a  body  not  yet  in  a  state  of  consistency  ;  it  has  no 
definable  character,  no  fixed  destination  ;  it  is  incapable  of 
achieving  any  thing  great.  Thus  from  the  time  of  the 
war  of  the  old  German  electors  against  the  Holy  Empire, 
and  of  the  treaty  of  Westphalia,  which  sanctioned  their 
independence  and  broke  in  pieces  the  former  unity  of  the 
nation,  Germany  continued  under  an  eclipse,  until  the 
period  of  the  rise  of  the  house  of  Brandenburg  from  the 
midst  of  the  anarchy  of  the  little  German  States,  when  a 
rival  was  given  to  the  house  of  Austria  and  a  strong  dual- 
ism established.  Dualism  is  not,  however,  the  only  mode 
in  which  a  society  can  be  constituted,  at  once  solid 
and  elastic.  When  a  third  type,  whose  superiority  is 
admitted  by  the  others,  or  which  partakes  sufficiently  of 
the  nature  of  each  to  serve  as  a  bond  and  a  mediator  be- 
tween them,  exists,  the  social  organisation  is  then  in  a  high 
degree  vigourous ;  for  then,  the  harmony  between  the  two 
primitive  types  has  ceased  to  be  an  abstraction,  it  has  be- 
come a  substance.  In  some  cases  this  third  personage  of 
the  drama  becomes  so  indispensable  to  the  action,  that  it 
must  be  supplied  at  any  rate,  and  its  great  prerogatives  de- 
volve on  a  transient  actor  ;  thus  in  Greece,  Thebes  played 
this  part  during  a  short  period.  Sometimes  it  has  been 
filled  by  an  aristocracy,  which  has  served  as  a  check  to 
both  parties  in  turn  ;  an  aristocracy  worthy  of  the  name 
is  eminently  qualified  for  this  task,  because  it  combines 
the  two  natures  in  itself,  feels  the  reaction  of  their  passions 
influencing  itself,  and  has  the  energy  necessary  either  to 


124  LETTER  X. 

curb  or  spur  them  on,  as  the  exigency  of  the  case  requires. 
There  is  no  country  in  which  dualism  is  more  admirably 
developed  than  in  the  United  States  ;  each  of  the  two  na- 
tures has  an  open  field,  each  a  distinct  career  of  industry  ; 
each  possesses  in  the  highest  degree  the  qualities  necessary 
for  its  peculiar  position.  Considered  in  respect  to  a  triple 
type,  the  United  States  are  not  less  favorably  situated ; 
the  young  giant  that  is  growing  up  in  the  West,  seems 
destined  to  fulfil  the  prophecy  the  last  shall  be  first,  and  to 
bind  together  the  North  and  the  South  in  his  vigourous 
gripe. 

In  France  we  have  two  distinct  types,  that  of  the 
North  and  that  of  the  South ;  but  instead  of  employing 
the  principle  of  centralisation  as  a  means  of  developing 
the  nature  of  both,  and  giving  them  a  free  and  harmonious 
action,  we  have  endeavoured  to  confound  them  in  a  narrow 
and  sterile  unity.  We  have  especially  thwarted  the  most 
reasonable  and  legitimate  wishes  of  the  South,  which 
has  been  overborne  and  crushed  by  the  North.  It  takes 
its  revenge,  indeed,  in  furnishing  us  with  most  of  our 
statesmen,  very  much  as  Ireland  has  the  privilege  of  giving 
premiers  to  England  ;  but  like  Irish  ministers  in  England, 
our  Southern  statesmen,  ungrateful  sons  of  a  neglected 
mother,  govern  wholly  in  the  interest  of  the  North,  as  if 
France  contained  towns  only,  and  had  no  rural  population, 
as  if  we  were  chiefly  a  manufacturing,  and  but  partially 
an  agricultural  people,  and,  what  is  worse,  as  if  we  were 
a  school  of  philosophers,  and  not  a  nation  longing  for 
religious  faith  and  political  love. 


LOWELL.  125 


LETTER   XL 

LOWELL. 

LOWELL,  JUNE  12,  1834. 

THE  municipal  elections  which  took  place  in  New  York 
two  months  ago,  and  the  legislative  elections  in  Virginia, 
which  occupied  the  whole  month  of  April,  have  revealed 
to  the  Opposition  its  whole  strength.  Their  success  was 
unexpected,  particularly  in  New  York  ;  I  say  success,  al- 
though the  newly  elected  mayor  belongs  to  the  adminis- 
tration party,  because  the  Opposition  has  the  majority  in 
both  houses  of  the  common  council,  the  board  of  alder- 
men, and  the  board  of  assistants,  who  govern  in  reality. 
Since  that  time,  the  Opposition  has  continued  to  gain 
ground.  There  are  some  able  statesmen  in  the  Senate, 
who  are  also  skilful  parliamentary  tacticians ;  they  knew 
that  by  irritating  the  President  they  might  force  him  to 
commit  some  act  of  imprudence,  and  this  motive  was  not 
without  its  weight  in  the  adoption  by  the  Senate  of  reso- 
lutions censuring  his  conduct  in  regard  to  the  Bank.  The 
old  General  felt  this  censure  very  sensibly,  and  replied  to 
it  by  a  protest,  which  his  best  friends  consider  a  mistake, 
and  which  the  Senate  refused  to  have  entered  on  its  jour- 
nal. It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  Mr  Van  Buren,  whose 
sagacity  all  admit,  did  not  interpose  his  influence  to  pre- 
vent the  sending  of  this  message.  One  of  the  fundamen- 
tal maxims  of  American  politics  is,  that  the  sword  and 
purse  should  not  be  united  in  the  same  hands ;  that  is, 
that  the  President,  to  whom  the  constitution  has  entrusted 
the  military  force  of  the  Republic,  should  not  also  be  the 
keeper  of  the  public  money.  This  is  here  a  universally 


126  LETTER  XL 

received,  undisputed  maxim  ;  and  the  President's  protest 
clashes  with  this  doctrine.  It  became  necessary,  there- 
fore, to  follow  up  the  protest  by  an  explanatory  message, 
which  the  Opposition  calls  a  recantation,  and  which  in 
truth  is  one.  This  retractation  or  explanation  has  not,  how- 
ever, destroyed  the  effect  of  the  first  message,  and  the 
consequence  has  been  a  hesitation  in  the  democratic  ranks. 
The  Virginia  elections,  which  were  then  going  on,  show 
that  they  were  influenced  by  it,  and  some  other  elections 
of  less  importance  have  turned  out  unfavorably  to  the 
Administration. 

In  Albany,  the  head-quarters  of  Mr  Van  Buren's  friends, 
the  Opposition  has  carried  the  municipal  elections.  The 
partisans  of  the  Administration  have,  as  if  in  sport,  added 
fault  to  fault.  A  committee  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, appointed  to  examine  into  the  doings  of  the  Bank, 
of  which  the  majority  were  Jackson  men,  as  the  adminis- 
tration has  the  upper  hand  in  that  body,  committed  a 
series  of  blunders :  there  was  a  paper  war  between  the 
committee  and  the  directors  of  the  Bank,  in  which  the 
former  were  completely  unhorsed,  and  had  no  better  re- 
source than  the  brutal  idea  of  ordering  the  President  and 
directors  to  be  taken  into  custody  by  the  sergeant-at-arms. 
Such  a  proposition  was  revolting  to  every  body  ;  the  ma- 
jority lately  so  compact,  already  exhibits  symptoms  of 
disaffection,  and  several  recent  votes  show  that  the  Oppo- 
sition is  gaining  ground.  One  might  say  that  the  pru- 
dent, those,  to  use  the  words  of  the  great  master  of  diplo- 
macy, whose  watches  go  faster  than  those  of  their  neigh- 
bours, are  getting  ready  to  desert.  Out  of  the  legislative 
houses,  the  Opposition  is  organising  energetically  for  the 
general  elections,  which  are  to  take  place  next  autumn  :  it 
is  making  preparations  in  the  spirit  with  which  they  are 
made,  when  one  feels  sure  of  victory,  and  is  determined 
that  it  shall  be  a  decisive  one.  In  New  York,  for  exam- 


LOWELL.  127 

pie,  the  common  council  have  removed  all  the  Jackson  men 
from  municipal  offices ;  all  have  made  way  for  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  Administration.  The  mayor  will  have  an 
Anti-Jackson  secretary,  because  that  officer  is  chosen  by 
the  common  council.  These  removals  are  harsh  measures, 
but  the  friends  of  the  Administration  have  no  right  to 
complain,  for  they  have  set  the  example  on  a  larger  scale, 
by  removing  hundreds  of  custom-house  officers  and  post- 
masters. Without  pretending  to  justify  these  violent  acts, 
it  should  be  considered  that  something  more  is  involved 
than  merely  the  removing  of  an  adversary  to  make  way 
for  a  friend.  The  Opposition  wish  that  the  inspectors  of 
streets  should  be  Anti- Jackson  men,  because  the  scaven- 
gers, who  are  in  their  employ,  have  a  vote ;  just  as  the 
Administration  insists  upon  all  the  postmasters  being  Jack- 
son men,  because  in  the  country  they  have  a  certain  influ- 
ence. 

It  is  less  than  a  year  since  General  Jackson  visited  the 
great  towns  of  the  North.  He  was  received  with  acclama- 
tions such  as  neither  America  had  ever  before  witnessed. 
Washington  never  excited  half  the  enthusiasm ;  neither 
Bolivar,  Pizarro,  nor  the  great  Cortez  was  ever  saluted 
with  such  pompous  epithets.  It  was  an  apotheosis.  It  is 
not  yet  a  year  since,  and  already  abuse  has  succeeded  to 
the  most  extravagant  praise.  A  few  days  ago,  I  was 
grieved  to  read  some  unbecoming  pleasantries  upon  the  old 
General's  scars.  What  will  be  held  sacred,  if  honourable 
wounds,  all  received  in  front,  fighting  for  one's  country, 
are  to  become  a  subject  of  low  jests  ?  The  war  of  the 
President  on  the  Bank  was  certainly  unjust  and  disastrous 
to  the  country ;  the  rsieasures  taken  in  his  name  against 
that  institution,  were  impolitic  and  unauthorised  by  law  ; 
the  violent  passion  and  imperious  temper  displayed  by  him 
in  the  affair,  make  a  strange  figure  in  the  seat,  that  had 
been  occupied  by  sages  like  Washington  and  his  successors. 


128  LETTER  XI. 

All  this  is  true ;  but  when  we  look  back  on  fifty  years  of 
public  services,  we  are  filled  with  grief  and  indignation  to 
think,  that  at  the  end  of  so  long  a  career,  outrage  and  in- 
gratitude will  be,  perhaps,  his  only  reward.  Can  he  have 
been  raised  so  high,  only  that  his  fall  should  be  greater  ? 
Is  he  destined  to  furnish  another  proof  of  the  instability 
of  popular  favour  in  every  age  and  all  countries  ?  But  in- 
stead of  dwelling  on  these  unpleasant  reflections,  I  will 
rather  describe  the  scene  now  exhibited  literally  under  my 
windows. 

The  town  of  Lowell  dates  its  origin  eleven  years  ago, 
and  it  now  contains  15,000  inhabitants,  inclusive  of  the 
suburb  of  Belvedere.  Twelve  years  ago  it  was  a  barren 
waste,  in  which  the  silence  was  interrupted  only  by  the 
murmur,  of  the  little  river  of  Concord,  and  the  noisy  dash- 
ings  of  the  clear  waters  of  the  Merrimac,  against  the  granite 
blocks  that  suddenly  obstruct  their  course.  At  present, 
it  is  a  pile  of  huge  factories,  each  five,  six,  or  seven  stories 
high,  and  capped  with  a  little  white  belfry,  which  strongly 
contrasts  with  the  red  masonry  of  the  building,  and  is 
distinctly  projected  on  the  dark  hills  in  the  horizon.  By 
the  side  of  these  larger  structures  rise  numerous  little 
wooden  houses,  painted  white,  with  green  blinds,  very 
neat,  very  snug,  very  nicely  carpeted,  and  with  a  few 
small  trees  around  them,  or  brick  houses  in  the  English 
style,  that  is  to  say,  simple,  but  tasteful  without  and  com- 
fortable within ;  on  one  side,  fancy-goods  shops  and  milli- 
ners' rooms  without  number,  for  the  women*  are  the 
majority  in  Lowell,  and  vast  hotels  in  the  American  style, 
very  much  like  barracks  (the  only  barracks  in  Lowell) ; 
on  another,  canals,  water-wheels,  water-falls,  bridges,  banks, 
schools,  and  libraries,  for  in  Lowell  reading  is  the  only 


*  The  female  population  of  Lowell,  between  the  ages  of  15  and  25  years, 
corresponds  to  a  total  population  of  from  50,000  to  60,000  souls. 


LOWELL. 

recreation,*  and  there  are  no  less  than  seven  journals  printed 
here.  All  around  are  churches  and  meeting-houses  of 
every  sect,  Episcopalian,  Baptist,  Congregationalist,  Meth- 
odist, Universalist,  Unitarian,  &c.,  and  there  is  also  a 
Roman  Catholic  chapel.  Here  are  all  the  edifices  of  a 
flourishing  town  in  the  Old  World,  except  the  prisons, 
hospitals,  and  theatres ;  everywhere  is  heard  the  noise  of 
hammers,  of  spindles,  of  bells  calling  the  hands  to  their 
work,  or  dismissing  them  from  their  tasks,  of  coaches  and 
six  arriving  or  starting  off,  of  the  blowing  of  rocks  to 
make  a  mill-race  or  to  level  a  road  ;  it  is  the  peaceful  hum 
of  an  industrious  population,  whose  movements  are  regu- 
lated like  clockwork  ;  a  population  not  native  to  the  town, 
and  one  half  of  which  at  least  will  die  elsewhere,  after 
having  aided  in  founding  three  or  four  other  towns ;  for 
the  full-blooded  American  has  this  in  common  with  the 
Tartar,  that  he  is  encamped,  not  established,  on  the  soil  he 
treads  upon. 

Massachusetts  and  the  adjoining  small  States  of  New 
England  contain  several  manufacturing  towns  similar  to 
Lowell,  but  none  of  them  on  so  large  a  scale.  An  Amer- 
ican, well  acquainted  with  the  character  of  his  country- 
men, gave  me  the  following  account  of  the  origin  of  these 
towns,  and  of  Lowell  in  particular.  "In  1812,"  said  he, 
"  the  United  States  declared  war  against  Great  Britain  to 
defend  the  honour  of  their  insulted  flag.  Boston  and  the 
rest  of  New  England  opposed  the  war,  and  thus  drew 
upon  themselves  the  reproaches  of  their  brethren  of  the 
Middle  and  Southern  States.  The  fact  is,  they  were  quite 


*  The  rigid  spirit  of  Puritanism  has  been  carried  to  its  utmost  in  Lowell, 
owing  to  the  great  number  of  young  girls  collected  together  in  the  factories. 
In  1836,  a  man  was  fined  by  the  municipal  authorities  for  exercising  the 
trade  of  common  fiddler  ;  he  was  treated  as  if  he  had  outraged  the  public 
morals,  the  magistrates  fearing  that  the  pleasures  of  the  dance  might  tend 
to  corruption  of  manners. 

17 


130  LETTER  XI. 

as  sensitive  as  the  rest  of  their  countrymen  to  any  insult 
offered  their  flag  by  the  mistress  of  the  ocean  ,*  the  patri- 
otism of  the  New  Englanders  is  above  suspicion ;  they 
began  the  war  of  Independence,  and  they  supported  the 
principal  burden  of  that  war.  They  were,  likewise,  re- 
solved to  have  satisfaction  for  the  outrages  committed  by 
England,  for  it  was  they  who  had  the  greater  number  of 
seamen  impressed  by  the  English  ;*  but  they  did  not  wish 
to  have  recourse  to  the  cannon's  mouth.  A  commercial 
people,  they  had  much  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain  by  a 
maritime  war ;  a  clear-sighted  race,  they  saw  that  the 
chance  of  war  was  on  the  side  that  could  muster  the 
largest  armies  and  the  most  numerous  navy ;  in  a  word, 
war  appeared  to  them  to  be  a  barbarous,  old-fashioned 
means,  unworthy  of  their  inventive  wit.  The  Yankees 
never  do  anything  like  other  people,  but  they  always  have 
some  contrivance  in  store,  that  nobody  else  would  have 
ever  thought  of.  After  a  careful  examination,  the  Yankee 
said  to  himself,  the  best  mode  of  warfare  against  the  Eng- 
lish will  be  to  attack  the  sources  of  their  wealth ;  now 
what  is  the  principal  source  of  the  wealth  of  Great 
Britain?  Its  manufactures.  Among  its  manufactures 
which  are  the  most  productive  ?  Why  the  cotton.  Well 
then,  we  will  set  up  spinning  works  and  manufactories  of 
cottons ;  this  will  be  our  war  on  Great  Britain.  Ten  or 
twelve  years  were  passed  in  making  experiments,  in  pre- 
liminary preparations  and  attempts  to  form  a  class  of  ope- 
ratives, and  to  make  machinery.  In  1823,  the  Merrimack 
corporation  began  operations  at  Lowell,  where  the  River 
Merrimack  has  a  fall  of  32  feet,  creating  a  vast  motive 
power,  and  has  been  followed  by  the  Hamilton,  Appleton, 


"  New  England  comprises  but  one  sixth  part  of  the  whole  population  of 
the  Union,  but  she  owns  one  half  of  the  shipping  of  the  country,  or  700,000 
tons  out  of  a  little  more  than  fourteen  hundred  thousand. 


LOWELL.  131 

Lowell,  Suffolk,  Tremont,  Lawrence,  and  other  companies 
in  succession." 

Such  is  Lowell.  Its  name  is  derived  from  that  of  a 
Boston  merchant,  who  was  one  of  the  first  promoters  of 
the  cotton-manufacture  in  the  United  States.  It  is  not 
like  one  of  our  European  towns  that  was  built  by  some 
demi-god,  a  son  of  Jupiter,  or  by  some  hero  of  the  Trojan 
war,  or  by  the  genius  of  an  Alexander  or  a  Caesar,  or  by 
some  saint,  attracting  crowds  by  his  miracles,  or  by  the 
whim  of  some  great  sovereign,  like  Louis  XIV.  or  Frede- 
ric, or  by  an  edict  of  Peter  the  Great.  It  was  neither  a 
pious  foundation,  nor  an  asylum  for  fugitives,  nor  a  mili- 
tary post ;  but  it  is  one  of  the  speculations  of  the  mer- 
chants of  Boston.  The  same  spirit  of  enterprise,  which  a 
year  ago  suggested  the  idea  of  sending  a  cargo  of  ice  from 
Boston  to  Calcutta  round  Cape  Horn,  to  cool  the  drink  of 
Lord  William  Bentinck  and  the  nabobs  of  the  India  com- 
pany, has  led  them  to  build  up  a  town  here,  wholly  at 
their  own  expense,  with  all  the  buildings  required  by  the 
wants  of  a  civilised  community,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
manufacture  white  cottons  and  calicoes ;  and  they  have 
succeeded,  as  they  always  succeed  in  their  speculations. 
The,  semi-annual  dividends  of  the  manufacturing  compa- 
nies in  Lowell,  are  generally  from  5  to  6  per  cent. 

The  cotton  manufacture  in  America,  which  dates  only 
from  the  last  war  with  England,  is  rapidly  extending, 
although  the  modifications  of  the  tariff,  required  by  the 
attitude  of  South  Carolina  last  year,  have  somewhat  tended 
to  check  the  manufacturing  spirit.  Boston  seems  destined, 
like  Liverpool,  to  have  its  Lancashire  behind  it.  As 
water-courses  abound  in  New  England,  according  to  the 
nature  of  all  primary  regions,  steam-engines  may  be  dis- 
pensed with  for  a  long  time  to '  come.  This  part  of  the 
country  is  very  unproductive,  and  it  required  all  the  perse- 
verance and  obstinacy,  even,  of  the  Puritans  to  introduce 


132  LETTER  XI. 

into  it  the  comforts  of  life.  It  is  rugged,  rocky,  moun- 
tainous, and  bleak,  consisting  in  fact  of  the  first  ridges  of 
the  Alleghanies,  which  extend  hence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, continually  receding  from  the  Atlantic  as  they  stretch 
southwards.  The  inhabitants  have  an  extraordinary  me- 
chanical genius,  they  are  patient,  attentive,  arid  inventive, 
and  they  must  succeed  in  manufactures ;  or  rather  they 
have  already  succeeded,  and  Lowell  is  a  miniature  Man- 
chester. About  30,000  bales  of  cotton,  or  one  sixth  of 
the  whole  domestic  consumption  (see  Note  14),  are  con- 
sumed in  Lowell,  besides  which  there  are  several  manu- 
factories of  broadcloths,  cassimeres,  and  carpets.  To 
strengthen  the  resemblance  between  their  city  and  Liver- 
pool, the  Boston  merchants  determined  to  construct  a  rail- 
road from  Boston  to  Lowell,  the  length  of  which  is  26 
miles  ;  there  was  already  a  canal,  as  there  is  one  between 
Liverpool  and  Manchester,  but  this  has  been  found  insuffi- 
cient, as  it  was  at  Liverpool  and  Manchester.  They 
would  not  permit  this  road  to  be  constructed  in  the  usual 
hasty  and  provisional  manner  of  the  American  works,  but 
they  determined  to  have  something  Roman,  and  their 
engineers  have  given  it  to  them,  and  have  certainly  made 
the  most  solid  railroad  in  the  world.  They  have  only 
left  out  the  beautiful  masonry,  the  arches  of  hewn  stone, 
the  columns,  and  all  the  monumental  architecture,  which 
makes  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  railroad  one  of  the 
wonders  of  modern  times  ;  these  magnificent  ornaments 
yield  no  dividends.  Yet  the  Boston  and  Lowell  railroad 
in  its  Roman  or  Cyclopean  simplicity,  will  cost  56,000 
dollars  a  mile. 

In  travelling  through  the  neighbourhood  of  Manchester, 
one  is  struck  with  wonder  at  the  sight  of  the  great  spin- 
ning works ;  in  looking  at  those  huge  white  buildings  by 
moon-light,  projecting  themselves  on  the  dark  back  ground 
above  the  plain,  those  hundreds  of  windows  from  which 


THE  FACTORY  GIRLS  OF  LOWELL.  133 

stream  the  brilliant  rays  of  gas-lights,  those  lofty  chimneys, 
higher  than  the  highest  obelisks,  one  -is  tempted  to  think 
them  palaces,  abodes  of  pleasure  and  joy.  Alas !  the 
delusive  splendours  !  alas  !  the  whited  sepulchres  !  All 
this  fairy  illusion  vanishes,  when  one  crosses  their  door- 
sill,  sees  the  haggard  looks  and  ragged  clothes  of  the 
crowd  that  fills  these  vast  structures,  beholds  those  poor 
children  whom  Parliament  vainly  strives  to  protect  against 
their  fathers,  who  are  incessantly  begetting  new  competi- 
tors, and  against  the  lash  of  their  overseers.  On  arriving 
at  Lowell,  the  first  impression  of  pleasure  caused  by  the 
sight  of  the  town,  new  and  fresh  like  an  opera  scene, 
fades  away  before  the  melancholy  reflection,  will  this 
become  like  Lancashire  ?  Does  this  brilliant  glare  hide 
the  misery  and  suffering  of  operatives,  and  those  degra- 
ding vices,  engendered  by  poverty  in  the  manufacturing 
towns,  drunkenness  and  prostitution,  popular  sedition 
hanging  over  the  heads  of  the  rich  by  a  frail  thread, 
which  an  ordinary  accident,  and  slight  imprudence,  or 
a  breath  of  the  bad  passions,  would  snap  asunder  ?  This 
question  I  hasten  to  answer. 


LETTER    XII. 

THE    FACTORY    GIRLS    OF    LOWELL. 

BOSTON,  JUNE  22,  1834. 

WAR,  the  last  argument  of  kings  and  people,  war,  in 
which  they  put  forth  their  strength  with  pride,  is  not, 
however,  the  greatest  exhibition  of  human  power.  A 


134  LETTER  XII. 

field  of  battle  may  excite  terror  or  a  feverish  enthusiasm, 
pity  or  horror ;  but  human  strength  applied  to  create  is  more 
imposing,  than  human  strength  employed  in  slaughter  and 
destruction.  The  pyramids  or  the  colossal  temples  of 
Thebes,  the  Colyseum  or  Saint  Peter's  of  Rome,  reveal  a 
higher  grandeur  than  a  field  of  battle  covered  with  deso- 
lation and  death,  were  it  strown  with  three  hundred  thou- 
sand bodies,  as  in  those  two  great  fights  in  which  our 
fathers,  under  Meroveus  and  Charles  Martel,  presented  a 
barrier  to  the  career  of  the  barbarians,  and  saved  the 
Western  world  from  the  encroachments  of  the  East.  The 
power  of  man,  like  that  of  God,  is  not  less  visible  in 
small  things  than  in  great.  There  is  nothing  in  the  physi- 
cal order  of  things  of  which  our  race  has  a  better  right  to 
boast,  than  of  the  mechanical  inventions,  by  means  of 
which  man  holds  in  check  the  irregular  vigour,  or  brings 
forth  the  hidden  energies,  of  nature.  By  the  aid  of  me- 
chanical contrivances,  this  poor  weak  creature,  reaching 
out  his  hands  over  the  immensity  of  nature,  takes  posses- 
sion of  the  rivers,  of  the  winds  of  heaven,  of  the  tides  of 
the  ocean.  By  them,  he  drags  forth  from  the  secret  bow- 
els of  the  earth  their  hidden  stores  of  fuel  and  of  metals, 
and  masters  the  subterranean  waters,  which  there  dispute 
his  dominion.  By  them,  he  turns  each  drop  of  water  into 
a  reservoir  of  steam,*  that  is,  into  a  magazine  of  power, 
and  thus  he  changes  the  globe,  in  comparison  with  which 
he  seems  an  atom,  into  a  labourious,  untiring,  submissive 
slave,  performing  the  heaviest  tasks  under  the  eye  of  its 
master.  Is  there  any  thing  which  gives  a  higher  idea  of 
the  power  of  man,  than  the  steam-engine  under  the  form 
in  which  it  is  applied  to  produce  motion  on  railroads  ?  It 
is  more  than  a  machine,  it  is  almost  a  living  being ;  it 

*  In  passing  into  steam,  water  expands  to  one  thousand  seven  hundred 
times  its  volume. 


THE  FACTORY  GIRLS  OF  LOWELL.  135 

moves,  it  runs  like  a  courser  at  the  top  of  his  speed  ; 
more  than  this,  it  breathes  ;  the  steam  which  issues  at 
regular  periods  from  the  pipes,  and  is  condensed  into  a 
white  cloud,  resembles  the  quick  breathing  of  a  race- 
horse. A  steam-engine  has  a  complete  respiratory  appa- 
ratus, which  acts  like  our  own  by  expansion  and  com- 
pression ;  it  wants  only  a  system  of  circulation  to  live. 

One  evening,  while  in  Virginia,  I  was  looking  at  a  dis- 
tant locomotive  engine,  approaching  along  the  Petersburg 
and  Roanoke  railroad,  one  of  the  fine  works  of  which  Mr 
Robinson,  the  engineer,  yet  a  young  man,  has  executed 
so  many  in  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania.  The  engine  came 
on  at  its  usual  rate  of  speed,  through  a  narrow  clearing  cut 
for  the  road  in  one  of  the  primitive  forests,  formerly  the 
domain  of  the  great  king  Powhatan  and  his  copper- 
coloured  warriors.*  The  chimney  threw  out  thousands 
of  sparks  from  its  wide,  funnel-shaped  top ;  although  yet 
at  a  distance,  the  noise  of  the  quick  breathing  of  the 
pipes  was  distinctly  heard.  In  the  darkness,  in  so  wild  a 
place,  in  the  bosom  of  a  vast  wilderness  and  the  midst  of 
a  profound  silence,  it  was  necessary  either  to  be  acquainted 
with  mechanics,  or  to  be  imbued  with  the  incredulity  of 
the  age,  not  to  believe  this  flying,  panting,  flaming  ma- 
chine, a  winged  dragon  vomiting  forth  fire.  A  short  time 
since  some  Bramins,  the  fathers  of  ancient  science,  seeing 
a  steam-boat  stem  the  current  of  the  sacred  Ganges,  really 
believed  that  it  was  some  strange  animal,  recently  discov- 
ered by  the  English  in  some  distant  region. 

In  our  modern  societies  the  improvements  of  machinery 
have  given  us  manufactures,  which  promise  to  be  a  source 
of  inexhaustible  prosperity  and  well-being  to  mankind. 


*  This  railroad  was  constructed  for  GO  miles  through  a  vast  forest  of  oak 
and  pine,  the  few  houses  now  found  along  the  line  having  been  erected 
since  the  execution  of  the  work. 


136  LETTER  XII. 

The  English  manufactories  alone  yield  about  eight  hun- 
dred million  yards  of  cotton  stuffs  annually,  or  about  one 
yard  for  each  inhabitant  of  the  globe.     If  it  were  required 
to  produce  this  amount  of  cloth  without  machinery,  by 
the  fingers  alone,  it  is  probable  that  each  of  us  would 
hardly  be  able  to  card,  spin,  and  weave  his  yard  a  year,  so 
that  the  whole  time  of  the  whole  human  race  would  be 
occupied  by  a  task,  which,  by  the  aid  of  machinery,  is 
accomplished  by  five  hundred  thousand  arms  in  Great 
Britain.     From  this  fact  we  may  conclude,  that  when  the 
manufacturing  system  shall  be  well  regulated  and  com- 
pletely organised,  a  moderate  amount  of  labour  by  a  small 
part  of  the  human  race,  will  be  sufficient  to  produce  all 
the  physical  comforts  for  the  whole.      There  can  be  no 
doubt,  that  it  will  be  so,  some  day  or  another  ;  but  this 
beautiful  order  of  things  is  yet  remote.     The  manufactu- 
ring system  is  a  novelty,  it  is  expanding  and  maturing  it- 
self, (see  Note  15),  and  as  it  ripens,  it  certainly  will  im- 
prove ;  the  staunchest  pessimists  cannot  deny  this,  yet  we 
should  expose  ourselves  to  the  most  cruel  disappointments, 
if  we  imagined  that  the  progress  of  improvement  can  be 
otherwise  than  slow,    step  by   step.     There   are  seven- 
leagued  boots  in  fairy-tales,  but  none  in  history.     Mean- 
while the  manufacturing  system  temporarily  involves  the 
most  disastrous  consequences,  which  it  would  be  useless 
to  enumerate  here.     Who  has  not  sounded  its  depths  with 
terror  ?     Who  has  not  wept  over  it  ?     It  is  the  canker  of 
England,  a  canker  so  inveterate,  that  one  is  sometimes 
tempted  to  think,  that  all  the  ability  displayed  of  late 
years  by  the  British  statesmen  in  attempts  at  domestic  re- 
form, will  prove  a  dead  loss. 

The  introduction  of  the  manufacturing  system  into  a 
new  country,  under  the  empire  of  very  different  circum- 
stances, is  an  event  worthy  of  the  closest  attention.  No 
sooner  was  I  recovered  from  the  sort  of  giddiness  with 


THE  FACTORY  GIRLS  OF  LOWELL.  137 

which  I  was  seized  at  the  sight  of  this  extemporaneous 
town,  hardly  had  I  taken  time  to  touch  it,  to  make  sure 
that  it  was  not  a  pasteboard  town,  like  those  which  Potem- 
kin  erected  for  Catherine  along  the  road  to  Byzantium, 
when  I  set  myself  to  inquire,  how  far  the  creation  of  man- 
ufactures in  this  country,  had  given  rise  to  the  same  dan- 
gers in  regard  to  the  welfare  and  morals  of  the  working 
class,  and  in  regard  to  the  security  of  the  rich  and  of 
public  order,  as  in  Europe  ;  and  through  the  polite  atten- 
tion of  the  agents  of  the  two  principal  companies  (the 
Merrimack  and  the  Lawrence),  I  was  able  to  satisfy  my 
curiosity.  The  cotton  manufacture  alone  employs  six 
thousand  persons  in  Lowell ;  of  this  number  nearly  five 
thousand  are  young  women  from  17  to  24  years  of  age, 
the  daughters  of  farmers  from  the  different  New  England 
States,  and  particularly  from  Massachusetts,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Vermont ;  they  are  here  remote  from  their  fam- 
ilies, and  under  their  own  control.  On  seeing  them  pass 
through  the  streets  in  the  morning  and  evening  and  at 
their  meal-hours,  neatly  dressed ;  on  finding  their  scarfs, 
and  shawls,  and  green  silk  hoods  which  they  wear  as  a 
shelter  from  the  sun  and  dust  (for  Lowell  is  not  yet  paved), 
hanging  up  in  the  factories  amidst  the  flowers  and  shrubs, 
which  they  cultivate,  I  said  to  myself,  this,  then,  is  not 
like  Manchester ;  and  when  I  was  informed  of  the  rate 
of  their  wages,  I  understood  that  it  was  not  at  all  like 
Manchester.  The  following  are  the  average  weekly  wages 
paid  by  the  Merrimack  corporation  last  May. 

For  picking  and  carding, 

For  spinning,         .         .         . 
For  weaving,        .... 
18 


138  LETTER  XII. 

(  3.45  Dols. 
For  warping  and  sizing,  .          .          / 

In  the  cloth-room  (measuring  and  folding),  3. 12 
These  numbers  are  averages ;  the  wages  of  the  more 
skilful  hands  amounting  to  five,  and  sometimes  nearly  six 
dollars.  Note  that  last  March,  in  consequence  of  the 
crisis  occasioned  by  the  President's  quarrel  with  the  Bank, 
there  was  a  general  reduction  of  from  30  to  40  cents  a  week. 
You  know  how  much  smaller  are  the  wages  of  women 
than  of  men  ;*  there  are  few  women  in  Europe,  out  of  a 
few  great  cities,  who  can  earn  more  than  20  cents  a  day 
or  one  dollar  a  week.  It  must  also  be  remembered,  that, 
in  the  United  States  the  necessaries  of  life  are  not  only 
much  cheaper  than  in  England,  but  even  than  in  France, 
so  that  a  great  many  of  these  girls  can  save  a  dollar  or  a 
dollar  and  a  half  a  week.  After  spending  four  years  in 
the  factories,  they  may  have  a  little  fortune  of  250  or  300 
dollars,  when  they  often  quit  work  and  marry.f 

In  France,  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  state  of 
things,  in  which  young  girls,  generally  pretty,  should  be 
separated  from  their  families,  and  thrown  together,  at  a 
distance  of  50  or  100  miles  from  home,  in  a  town  in  which 
their  parents  could  have  no  person  to  advise  and  watch 
over  them.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  with  the  exception  of  a 
very  small  number  of  cases,  which  only  prove  the  rule, 
that  this  state  of  things  has  yet  had  no  bad  effects  in 
Lowell.  The  manners  of  the  English  race  are  totally 
different  from  those  of  us  French ;  all  their  habits  and  all 
their  notions  wholly  unlike  ours.  The  Protestant  educa- 
tion, much  more  than  our  Catholic  discipline,  draws  round 

*  The  wages  of  a  mere  labourer  in  the  factories  at  Lowell  are  from  5  to  6 
dollars  a  week  ;  of  a  man  who  has  a  trade,  as  a  smith,  dyer,  8  to  10  dollars, 
of  the  engravers  of  patterns  on  the  printing  cylinders,  17  or  18  dollars. 

t  Out  of  on*  thousand  females  in  the  Lawrence  mills,  only  eleven  are 
married  women,  and  nineteen  widow*. 


THE  FACTORY  GIRLS  OF  LOWELL.  139 

each  individual  a  line  over  which  it  is  difficult  to  step. 
The  consequence  is  more  coldness  in  the  domestic  rela- 
tions, a  more  or  less  complete  absence  of  a  full  and  free 
expression  of  the  stronger  feelings  of  the  soul,  but,  in  turn, 
every  one  is  obliged  and  accustomed  to  show  more  respect 
for  the  feelings  of  others.  What  amongst  us  would  pass 
for  a  youthful  imprudence  or  a  pretty  trick,  is  severely 
frowned  upon  by  the  English  and  Americans,  and  partic- 
ularly by  the  Americans  of  New  England,  who  are,  as 
has  been  said,  double-distilled  English.  Nobody  in  this 
country,  then,  is  surprised  to  see  the  daughters  of  rural 
proprietors,  after  having  received  a  tolerable  education,  quit 
their  native  village  and  their  parents,  take  up  their  residence 
50  or  100  miles  off,  in  a  town  where  they  have  no  ac- 
quaintance, and  pass  two  or  three  years  in  this  state  of 
isolation  and  independence  ;  they  are  under  the  safeguard 
of  the  public  faith.  All  this  presupposes  an  extreme  re- 
serve of  manners,  a  vigilant,  inexorable,  and  rigid  public 
opinion,  and  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that,  under  this 
rigorous  system,  there  is  a  sombre  hue,  an  air  of  listless- 
ness,  thrown  over  society ;  but,  when  one  reflects  on  the 
dangers  to  which  the  opposite  system  exposes  the  daugh- 
ters of  the  poor,  who  have  no  guardian  to  warn  and  pro- 
tect them,  when  one  counts  its  victims,  however  slight 
may  be  his  sympathies  with  the  people,  it  is  difficult  to 
deny,  that  the  Anglo-American  prudery,  all  things  consid- 
ered, is  fully  worth  our  ease  and  freedom  of  manners, 
whatever  may  be  their  attractions.* 

*  Mr  H.  C.  Carey,  in  his  Essay  on  Wages  (p.  89),  quotes  the  following 
letter  from  the  director  of  one  of  the  factories  in  Lowell.  "  There  have 
been  in  our  establishment  only  three  cases  of  illicit  connexions,  and  in  all 
three  instances  the  parties  were  married  immediately,  several  months  be- 
fore the  birth  of  the  child,  so  that  in  fact  we  have  had  no  case  of  actual 
bastardy."  Mr  Carey  adds,  that  he  was  informed  that  there  had  been  no 
such  case  at  Dover,  where  there  is  a  very  large  manufactory.  Although  I 
do  not  believe  that  such  an  exemplary  degree  of  purity  prevails  in  all  the 


140  LETTER  XII. 

The  manufacturing  companies  exercise  the  most  care- 
ful supervision  over  these  girls.  I  have  already  said,  that, 
twelve  years  ago,  Lowell  did  not  exist ;  when,  therefore, 
the  manufactories  were  set  up,  it  also  became  necessary  to 
provide  lodgings  for  the  operatives,  and  each  company  has 
built  for  this  purpose  a  number  of  houses  within  its  own 
limits,  to  be  used  exclusively  as  boarding-houses  for  them. 
Here  they  are  under  the  care  of  the  mistress  of  the  house, 
who  is  paid  by  the  company  at  the  rate  of  one  dollar  and 
a  quarter  a  week  for  each  boarder,  that  sum  being  stopped 
out  of  the  weekly  wages  of  the  girls.  These  house- 
keepers, who  are  generally  widows,  are  each  responsible 
for  the  conduct  of  her  boarders,  and  they  are  themselves 
subject  to  the  control  and  supervision  of  the  company,  in 
the  management  of  their  little  communities.  Each  com- 
pany has  its  rules  and  regulations,  which  are  not  merely 
paper-laws,  but  which  are  carried  into  execution  with  all 
that  spirit  of  vigilant  perseverance  that  characterises  the 
Yankee.  I  will  give  you  a  short  summary  of  one  of 
these  codes,  for  they  seem  to  me  to  throw  great  light  on 
some  of  the  most  striking  peculiarities  of  this  country.  I 
will  take  those  of  the  Lawrence  company,  which  is  the 
most  recently  formed ;  they  are  a  revised  and  corrected 
edition  of  the  rules  and  regulations,  of  the  other  companies. 
They  bear  date  May  21,  1833.  Article  first  of  the  gene- 
ral rules  is  as  follows :  "  All  persons  employed  by  the 
Company  must  devote  themselves  assiduously  to  their 
duty  during  working-hours.  They  must  be  capable  of 
doing  the  work  which  they  undertake,  or  use  all  their 
efforts  to  this  effect.  They  must  on  all  occasions,  both 
in  their  words  and  in  their  actions,  show  that  they  are 


manufacturing  districts,  yet  I  am  convinced  that  the  morals  of  the  manu- 
facturing operatives  are  in  harmony  with  those  of  the  rest  of  the  popula- 
tion. 


THE  FACTORY  GIRLS  OP  LOWELL.  141 

penetrated  by  a  laudable  love  of  temperance  and  vir- 
tue, and  animated  by  a  sense  of  their  moral  and  social 
obligations.  The  Agent  of  the  Company  shall  endeavour 
to  set  to  all  a  good  example  in  this  respect.  Every  indi- 
vidual who  shall  be  notoriously  dissolute,  idle,  dishonest, 
or  intemperate,  who  shall  be  in  the  practice  of  absenting 
himself  from  divine  service,  or  shall  violate  the  Sabbath, 
or  shall  be  addicted  to  gaming,  shall  be  dismissed  from 
the  service  of  the  Company.  Art.  2.  "  All  ardent  spirits 
are  banished  from  the  Company's  grounds,  except  when 
prescribed  by  a  physician.  All  games  of  hazard  and  cards 
are  prohibited  within  their  limits  and  in  the  boarding- 
houses.  The  articles  following  from  3  to  13,  determine 
the  duties  of  the  agent,  assistant  agent,  foremen,  watch 
and  firemen.  Article  thirteenth  directs,  that  every  female 
employed  by  the  Company  shall  live  in  one  of  the  Com- 
pany's boarding-houses,  attend  regularly  at  divine  service, 
and  rigidly  observe  the  rules  of  the  Sabbath.  Article 
fourteenth  and  last,  contains  an  appeal  to  the  operatives,  on 
the  necessity  of  subordination,  and  on  the  compatibility  of 
obedience  with  civil  and  religious  liberty.  There  is,  be- 
sides, a  special  rule  relative  to  boarding-houses ;  it  recounts, 
that  the  Company  has  built  those  houses  and  lets  them  at 
a  low  price,  wholly  for  the  good  of  the  hands,*  and  that 
the  Company,  therefore,  imposes  certain  duties  on  the 
persons  who  hire  them.  It  makes  them  responsible  for 
the  neatness  and  comfortable  condition  of  the  houses,  the 
punctuality  and  good  quality  of  the  meals,  good  order  and 
harmony  among  the  boarders ;  it  requires  that  the  keepers 
of  the  houses  shall  receive  no  persons  as  boarders,  who  are 
not  employed  in  the  Company's  works,  and  it  obliges  them 

*  The  company  gets  only  4  percent,  on  the  capital  invested  in  the  board- 
ing-houses, while  the  average  rate  of  dividends  on  the  manufacturing  stock 
is  from  5  to  6  per  cent,  semi-annually. 


142  LETTER  XII. 

to  give  an  account  of  the  behaviour  of  the  girls.  It  also 
prescribes  that  the  doors  shall  be  shut  at  ten,  and  repeats 
the  injunction  of  attendance  at  divine  worship. 

These  regulations,  which  amongst  us  would  excite  a 
thousand  objections  and  would  be  in  fact  impracticable, 
are  here  regarded  as  the  most  simple  and  natural  thing  in 
the  world ;  they  are  enforced  without  opposition  or  diffi- 
culty. Thus  in  regard  to  Sunday,  for  instance,  which 
with  us  is  a  holiday,  a  day  of  amusement  and  gaiety,  it  is 
here  a  day  of  retirement,  meditation,  silence,  and  prayer.* 
This  is  one  of  the  features  in  which  the  French  type  most 
strongly  contrasts  with  the  Anglo-American.  In  a  moral 
and  religious  point  of  view,  there  prevail  among  us  a 
laxity  and  a  toleration,  which  form  a  counterpart  to  the 
American  let-alone  principle  in  political  matters ;  whilst 
the  principle  of  political  authority,  which  has  always  been 
established  in  great  vigour  among  us,  under  all  forms  of 
government,  monarchy,  empire,  or  republic,  corresponds  to 
the  austere  reserve  of  American  manners,  to  their  rigid 
habits  of  life,  and  to  the  religious  severity  which  exists 
here  by  the  side  of  the  great  multiplicity  of  sects.  So 
true  is  it,  that  both  order  and  liberty  are  essential  to  hu- 
man nature,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  establish  a  society 
on  one  of  these  principles  alone  !  If  you  abandon  a  por- 
tion of  the  social  institutions  exclusively  to  the  spirit  of 
liberty,  be  assured  that  the  principle  of  order  will  take  no 
less  exclusive  possession  of  some  other  portion.  Yield  up 
to  liberty  the  whole  field  of  politics,  and  you  are  com- 


*  In  the  United  States,  the  theatres  are  generally  closed  on  Sunday,  out  of 
respect  for  the  rules  of  the  Sabbath  ;  the  only  exception  to  this  custom  is 
among  the  French  population  of  Louisiana.  In  New  England,  religious 
scruples  on  this  point  are  carried  farther  than  elsewhere;  thus  in  Boston,  a 
by-law  of  the  city  prescribes  the  shutting  up  of  the  theatres  on  Saturday 
evening,  because,  according  to  some  precisians,  the  Sabbath  begins  at  sunset 
•ii  that  day. 


THE  FACTORY  GIRLS  OF  LOWELL.  143 

pelled  to  give  religion  and  manners  wholly  up  to  order. 
Leave  manners  and  religion  to  liberty,  and  you  rind  your- 
self obliged  to  strengthen  the  principle  of  order  in  politics, 
under  pain  of  suffering  society  itself  to  fall  into  ruins. 
Such  are  the  general  laws  of  equilibrium  which  govern 
the  nations  and  the  universe  of  worlds. 

Up  to  this  time,  then,  the  rules  of  the  companies  have 
been  observed.  Lowell,  with  its  steeple-crowned  factories, 
resembles  a  Spanish  town  with  its  convents ;  but  with 
this  difference,  that  in  Lowell,  you  meet  no  rags  nor 
Madonnas,  and  that  the  nuns  of  Lowell,  instead  of  work- 
ing sacred  hearts,  spin  and  weave  cotton.  Lowell  is  not 
amusing,  but  it  is  neat,  decent,  peaceable,  and  sage.  Will 
it  always  be  so  ?  Will  it  be  so  long  ?  It  would  be  rash 
to  affirm  it ;  hitherto  the  life  of  manufacturing  operatives 
has  proved  little  favorable  to  the  preservation  of  severe 
morals.  So  it  has  been  in  France,  as  well  as  in  England  ; 
in  Germany  and  Switzerland,  as  well  as  in  France.  But 
as 'there  is  a  close  connexion  between  morality  and  com- 
petence, it  may  be  considered  very  probable,  that  while 
the  wages  shall  continue  to  be  high  at  Lowell,  the  influ- 
ences of  a  good  education,  a  sense  of  duty,  and  the  fear  of 
public  opinion,  will  be  sufficient  to  maintain  good  morals. 
Will  wages,  then,  continue  to  be  what  they  are  ?  There 
are  some  causes  which  must  tend  to  reduce  them  ;  the 
rates  of  the  duties  which  protect  American  industry  are 
progressively  decreasing ;  on  the  1st  of  July,  1842,  they 
will  be  reduced  to  a  maximum  of  20  per  cent.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  processes  become  more  perfect,  the 
labourers  grow  more  skilful,  the  capitalists  are  realising 
their  outlays,  and  consequently  will  no  longer  expect  to 
divide  10  or  12  per  cent.  A  certain  diminution  of  wages 
is  very  possible,  even  after  that  of  last  March,  because 
labour  is  paid  in  the  Lowell  factories,  better  than  it  is  in 
the  surrounding  country ;  but  there  must  be  limits  to  this 


144  LETTER  XII. 

diminution.  In  Europe,  work  is  often  wanting  for  the 
hands  ;  here,  on  the  other  side,  hands  are  wanting  for  the 
work.  While  the  Americans  have  the  vast  domain  in  the 
West,  a  common  fund,  from  which,  by  industry,  each 
may  draw  for  himself  and  by  himself,  an  ample  heritage, 
an  extreme  fall  of  wages  is  not  to  be  apprehended. 

In  America  as  in  Europe,  competition  among  the  head- 
workmen  tends  to  reduce  their  wages ;  but  the  tendency 
is  not  increased  in  America,  as  in  Europe,  by  the  compe- 
tition among  the  labourers,  that  is  by  an  excess  of  hands 
wanting  employ,  for  the  West  stands  open  as  a  refuge  to 
all  who  are  unemployed.  In  Europe,  a  coalition  of  work- 
men can  only  signify  one  of  these  two  things ;  raise  our 
wages  or  we  shall  die  of  hunger  with  our  wives  and  chil- 
dren, which  is  an  absurdity  ;  or  raise  our  wages,  if  you  do 
not,  we  shall  take  up  arms,  which  is  a  civil  war ;  in  Eu- 
rope, there  is  no  other  possible  construction  to  be  put  upon 
it.  But  in  America,  on  the  contrary,  such  a  coalition 
means,  raise  our  wages,  or  we  go  to  the  West.  Every 
coalition  which  does  not  amount  to  this  in  the  minds  of 
the  associates,  is  merely  the  whim  of  the  moment,  an 
affair  of  little  importance.  This  is  the  reason  why  coali- 
tions, which  in  Europe  are  often  able  to  shakfe  the  firmest 
fabric,  present  no  real  danger  to  the  public  peace  in  this 
country,  where  authority  is  disarmed.  This  is  the  reason 
why  European  countries,  burdened  with  an  excess  of  popu- 
lation, need  for  their  safety  and  welfare  a  West,  into  which 
each  may  overflow  after  its  own  manner.  This  also  is 
the  reason  why  France  is  right  in  keeping  Algiers. 


THE  BANK.— SLAVERY.  145 


LETTER   XIII. 

THE      BANK. SLAVERY. 

ELMINGTON,  (VA.)  AUG.  24,  1834. 

THE  elections  of  members  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives will  take  place  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Ohio,  the  principal  States  in  the  Union,  next  October  and 
November.  Although  the  members  then  returned  will 
not  take  their  seats  until  the  session  which  begins  in 
December,  1835,  yet  great  importance  is  attached  to  the 
results  of  these  elections,  even  in  respect  to  the  approach- 
ing session  of  Congress.  On  both  sides  preparations  are 
making  with  the  greatest  activity ;  both  parties  have 
chosen  their  text.  As  the  harangues  against  an  aristocracy 
of  money  have  aroused  the  prejudices  of  the  labouring 
classes,  who  form  the  majority  of  electors,  against  the 
Bank,  the  watchword  of  the  Opposition  is  no  longer  osten- 
sibly the  Bank.  But  it  says  to  the  electors,  referring  to 
the  late  acts  of  the  President  directed  against  the  Bank, 
and  the  doctrines  which  on  this  occasion  he  has  put  forth 
in  his  messages  ;  "  The  executive  power  is  guilty  of  gross 
usurpation  ;  .hasten  to  the  rescue  of  the  constitution  from 
its  monstrous  encroachments.  It  is  no  longer  a  question 
about  the  bank ;  but  our  liberties,  bought  by  the  blood  of 
our  fathers,  are  at  stake,  and  an  audacious  soldier,  sur- 
rounded by  a  train  of  servile  place-men,  has  dared  to  trifle 
with  our  dearest  rights."  This  is  certainly  the  best 
ground  for  the  Opposition  to  take ;  for  General  Jackson, 
in  the  affair  of  the  Bank,  as  in  most  other  circumstances 
of  his  life,  has  cared  little  for  forms.  He  has  gone  straight 
forward  to  his  object,  without  stopping  to  consider  where 
he  was  placing  his  foot. 
19 


146  LETTER  XIII. 

The  Administration  party,  which  well  knows  how  un- 
popular the  Bank  is  with  the  multitude,  since  this  unpopu- 
larity is  chiefly  its  own  work,  talks  Bank  and  nothing  but 
Bank.  "  The  Opposition,"  they  say,  "  is  mocking  you, 
when  it  calls  upon  you  to  save  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws.  What  do  they  care  for  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws  ?  It  is  the  Bank  that  they  wish  to  save.  Down 
with  the  Bank  !  General  Jackson,  the  Hero  of  two  Wars, 
who  pushed  back  the  English  bayonets  from  the  Union  at 
the  peril  of  his  life,  wishes  to  free  the  soil  of  the  country 
from  this  prop  of  tyranny  and  corruption.  The  Bank  is 
nothing  but  English  influence  which  seeks  to  enslave  you. 
It  is  now  to  be  seen,  whether  you  will  be  freemen  or  wor- 
shippers of  the  Golden  Calf.  In  spite  of  the  hypocritical 
protestations  of  the  parasites  of  the  Bank,  remember,  at 
the  polls,  that  the  question,  the  only  question,  the  whole 
question,  is  Bank  or  no  Bank."  At  bottom,  what  the 
Administration  party  says,  is  true  ;  the  Opposision  do  not 
give  up  the  cause  of  the  Bank.  The  question,  which  is 
at  issue,  and  which  is  to  be  settled  by  the  elections,  is,  in 
fact,  the  question  of  the  Bank. 

But  whose  fault  is  it,  if  the  Opposition  has  a  rightful 
cause  to  call  the  citizens  to  the  defence  of  the  Constitu- 
tion ?  Besides,  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party  felt 
that  their  policy,  which  consisted  in  setting  up  the  local 
banks  in  opposition  to  to  the  National  Bank,  would  neces- 
sarily fail,  and  that  the  financial  and  commercial  interests 
of  the  country,  comprising  the  local  banks  themselves, 
must,  in  the  long  run,  rally  round  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  The  abuse  which  they  had  heaped  upon  the  latter, 
would,  therefore,  fall  directly  upon  the  local  banks.  It 
was  impossible  that  the  democratic  multitude,  which  had 
much  more  just  grounds  of  complaint  against  the  local 
banks,  than  against  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  by 
which  nobody  had  ever  lost  a  dollar,  should  not  perceive 


THE  BANK.— SLAVERY.  147 

this.  Accordingly,  after  having  hesitated  a  long  time,  the 
heads  of  the  party  seem  ready  to  take  the  bold  stand  of 
openly  denouncing  all  banks.  Bank-bills,  they  say,  are 
nothing  but  wretched  rag-money ;  the  eulogies  of  the 
metals,  gold  and  silver,  are  now  become  the  order  of  the 
day.  Gold  is  called  Jackson  money ;  the  United  States 
mint  has  been  actively  employed  in  striking  gold  coins, 
half-eagles  and  quarter-cages.  The  principal  journals  of 
the  Jackson  party  pay  the  daily  wages  of  their  journeymen 
printers  in  gold ;  the  warm  friends  of  the  Administration 
affect  to  carry  gold  pieces  in  their  pockets,  and  as  paper 
only  is  generally  used  here  in  business  transactions,  even 
of  the  most  trifling  amount,  you  may  be  certain  that  a 
man  who  is  seen  with  gold  in  his  hands,  is  a  Jacksonman. 
The  President  lately  made  a  visit  to  his  seat  in  Tennessee, 
and  paid  his  expenses  all  along  the  road  in  gold,  and  the 
Globe,  his  official  organ,  took  care  to  inform  the  public  of 
it.  At  a  dinner,  given  in  honour  of  him,  by  the  citizens 
of  Nashville,  he  proposed  this  toast :  "  Gold  and  silver, 
the  only  currency  recognised  by  the  constitution  /" 

This  apotheosis  of  gold  and  silver,  abstractly  consid- 
ered, is  all  very  well ;  hitherto  the  metals  have  made  too 
small  a  proportion  of  the  currency  of  the  United  States  ; 
gold,  particularly,  was  never  met  with.  At  its  last  session 
Congress  removed  one  of  the  obstacles  to  gold  remaining 
in  the  country  and  taking  the  place  of  small  bank  notes, 
by  raising  its  legal  value.  How  far  this  act  will  effect  its 
object  of  keeping  a  certain  quantity  of  gold  in  the  country, 
I  know  not ;  but  I  am  persuaded,  that  the  only  prompt 
and  effectual  means  of  sweeping  away  the  small  bills,  will 
be  a  National  Bank.  The,  prudent  and  experienced  men 
of  the  party  will  certainly  resist  a  formal  declaration  of 
war  against  all  banks  ;  but  it  is  hardly  to  be  avoided,  that 
in  the  democratic  party,  the  most  rash  and  the  most  violent 
should  give  the  law  to  the  men  of  moderation  and  expe- 


148  LETTER  XIII. 

rience.  In  this  event,  Mr  Van  Buren  will  have  need  of  all 
his  address  to  preserve  discipline  in  the  ranks.  He  is  too 
well  acquainted  with  the  commercial  situation  of  the 
United  States,  to  allow  himself  to  dwell  one  moment -on 
such  a  project  as  the  destruction  of  the  banks.  His  creed 
is  the  overthrow  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  not 
because  it  is  a  bank,  but  because,  in  his  view,  its  existence 
is  contrary  to  the  constitution. 

The  tactics  of  the  Opposition  have  already  given  it  suc- 
cess in  some  partial  and  unimportant  elections,  but  even  if 
they  should  have  the  majority  in  the  next  Congress,  it 
would  be  but  an  incomplete  victory,  for  the  Bank  would 
not  be  preserved.  Many  persons  who  have  joined  the 
Opposition  because  its  watchword  was  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws,  would  have  kept  aloof,  had  they  seen  the 
name  of  the  Bank  joined  with  them,  so  rooted  is  the  jeal- 
ousy of  this  useful  institution.  Admitting,  then,  that  the 
Opposition  triumphs  in  the  coming  elections,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  set  some  new  springs  in  motion  in  order  to 
save  the  Bank.  It  is  easy  to  refer  at  present  to  one  on 
which  the  friends  of  the  Bank  will  not  fail  to  rely. 

The  Union,  homogeneous  as  it  is  in  regard  to  language 
and  general  character,  is  subdivided,  as  I  have  already 
said,  into  three  groups,  daily  becoming  more  and  more 
strongly  marked.  North  of  the  Potomac,  the  States  are 
poor  in  soilf  but  enriched  by  commerce*  and  manufactures ; 
there  are  the  great  commercial  towns,  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  and  the  secondary  ports  of 
Salem,  Portland,  New  Bedford,  Nantucket,  and  Provi- 
dence ;  there,  also,  are  almost  all  the  manufactures  of  the 
Union.  These  States  do  not  admit  slavery,  with  the  ex- 

*  In  1833,  out  of  108  millions  the  ports  of  the  north  imported  9(i  million 

dollars.    Deducting  the  imports  of  New  Orleans,  those  of  all  the  Southern 

States  were  only  of  the  value  of  2,700,000  dollars.  The  exports  of  the 
South  are  much  greater  than  its  imports. 


THE  BANK.— SLAVERY.  149 

ception  of  Maryland,  where  the  slaves  are  on  the  decrease, 
and  the  Lilliputian  State  of  Delaware,  where  slavery  has, 
in  fact,  almost  disappeared.  South  of  the  Potomac,  be- 
tween the  Atlantic  and  the  Mississippi,  are  the  slave-hpld- 
ing  States,  wholly  agricultural,  and  the  only  part  of  the 
country  in  which  cultivation  is  conducted  on  a  great  scale, 
producing  cotton,  rice,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  without  mechan- 
ical industry,  and  having  but  little  commerce,  except  the 
coasting  trade,  the  foreign  trade  being  in  the  hands  of  the 
North.  In  the  West,  reaching  from  the  great  lakes  south- 
wards, and  lying  on  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  is  a 
tract  of  the  highest  fertility,  in  which,  since  the  peace  of 
1783,  have  grown  up  the  new  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois,  besides  Michigan,  which  is  now  on  the  point 
of  becoming  a  State.  These  are  also  agricultural  States, 
producing  corn  and  cattle  of  all  kinds,  yielding  whiskey 
and  salted  provisions,  cultivated  by  free  hands,  and  in 
which  property  is  so  far  subdivided,  that  each  family  has 
its  own  farm. 

Of  these  three  groups,  the  North  is  most  interested  in 
the  existence  of  a  Central  Bank  ;  it  is  there,  also,  that  the 
financial  machinery  of  the  Union  is  most  thoroughly  un- 
derstood, and  it  is  most  fully  perceived,  that  such  a  Bank 
is  one  of  its  most  indispensable  wheels.  But  the  North 
alone,  even  with  the  support  of  some  commercial  towns  in 
the  South  and  West,  such  as  New  Orleans  and  Cincinnati, 
does  not  make  up  a  majority,  and  in  the  North  itself,  in 
the  rural  districts  back  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  a 
jealousy  of  the  commerce  of  the  cities  prevails,  which  is 
worse  than  injustice,  for  it  is  ingratitude,  and  which  dis- 
plays itself  by  a  blind  hostility  to  the  Bank.  In  a  word, 
although  the  question  of  a  National  Bank  is  considered 
almost  a  question  of  existence  by  the  great  commercial 
capitals  of  the  North,  without  whose  enterprise  that  region 
would  be  still  little  better  than  a  wilderness,  yet  the  North 


150  LETTER  XIII. 

is  far  from  being  unanimous  in  favour  of  such  an  institu- 
tion, and  were  it  so,  would  not  alone  be  able  to  save  it. 
The  North,  then,  must  seek  allies  in  the  South  or  the 
West ;  there  are  some  symptoms  of  the  increase  of  the 
Opposition  in  the  West,  but  this  is  only  because  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Bank  has  been  temporarily  left  out  of  view. 
The  West  does  not  favour  the  Bank  nor  the  banks.  The 
hatred  of  these  eminently  democratic  States  to  the  banking 
system  is  formally  proclaimed  in  the  constitutions  of  Indi- 
ana and  Illinois,  by  which  banks  are  expressly  prohibited, 
unless  the  State  think  proper  to  establish  one  itself,  with 
its  own  funds  ;  a  measure  which  each  has  already  made 
preparations  to  adopt.  It  is  to  the  South,  then,  that  the 
North  must  look  for  help. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  South  and  the  North  are  very 
different  from  each  .other  in  many  points  (See  Letter  X.), 
and  in  a  certain  degree  there  are  the  same  analogies  and 
the  same  contrasts  between  the  North  and  the  South,  as 
between  England  and  France.*  The  South,  like,  France, 
is  most  distinguished  for  the  brilliant  qualities  ;  the  North, 
like  England,  for  the  solid  ;  great  ideas  have  their  origin 
rather  in  the  South ;  good  execution  belongs  rather  to  the 
North.  The  North  is  gifted  with  the  English  perseve- 
rance, at  once  the  pledge  and  the  condition  of  success ; 
the  South,  like  us,  is  easily  moved,  but  easily  discouraged  ; 
all  ardour  at  the  outset,  but  disconcerted  by  a  check  from 
any  unforeseen  obstacle.  It  was  a  matter  of  general  sur- 
prise through  the  Union  last  year,  that  the  South  Caroli- 
neans  had  completed,  and  completed  in  a  good  style  of  ex- 
ecution, a  railroad  from  Charleston  to  Augusta :  the  dis- 

*  I  asked  a  fellow  countryman,  established  at  Richmond,  whose  patriot- 
ism had  not  been  cooled  by  a  long  absence  from  France,  why  he  preferred 
Richmond  to  the  northern  cities,  which,  in  some  respects,  are  more  favour- 
able to  business  ;  "  Because,"  he  replied,  "  the  Virginians  are  the  French  of 
America." 


THE  BANK.— SLAVER Y.  151 

tance  is  equal  to  that  from  Havre  to  Paris.  From  the 
intermixture  of  northern  with  southern  men  in  Congress, 
we  find  in  that  body  a  spirit  of  calculation  and  a  practical 
good  sense  combined  with  a  lively  imagination  and  large 
views ;  the  well  balanced  combination  of  these  opposite 
qualities  explains  the  union  of  boldness  and  wisdom  which 
generally  characterises  the  acts  of  that  body.  Until  re- 
cently, when  the  West  has  suddenly  loomed  up,  and  taken 
its  stand  by  the  side  of  these  two  rivals,  the  domestic 
politics  of  the  United  States  have  consisted  in  maintaining 
the  balance  between  the  North  and  the  South,* 

There  are  important  differences  in  the  political  views 
of  the  North  and  the  South.  The  North  has  more  respect 
for  the  Federal  bond,  and  is  disposed  to  tighten  rather  than 
to  relax  it.  The  South  has  the  opposite  tendency.  The 
South  is  opposed  to  the  tariff,  to  the  system  of  internal 
improvements  by  the  Federal  government,  to  whatever 
tends  to  enlarge  the  influence  of  the  Federal  authority. 
"  The  lighter  is  the  Federal  yoke,"  says  the  South,  "  the 
more  easily  it  will  be  borne,  the  less  cause  there  will  be  to 
fear,  that  any  of  the  members  of  the  confederation  will 
be  tempted  to  shake  it  off."  "  By  relaxing  too  much  the 


*  It  -has  always  been  endeavoured  to  balance  the  number  of  non-slave- 
holding  States,  as  much  as  possible,  by  an  equal  number  of  slave  States  ; 
by  this  means,  the  Senate  would  be  exactly  divided  between  the  two  inter- 
ests. In  1789,  six  of  the  thirteen  States  admitted  slavery;  in  1792,  there 
were  16  States,  equally  divided  between  the  two  systems ;  in  1802,  out  of 
17  States,  nine  did  not  admit  slavery,  but  in  1812,  the  admission  of  Louisi- 
ana restored  the  balance.  From  1816  to  1819,  four  States  were  admitted, 
Alabama  and  Mississippi,  slave-holding,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  non-slave- 
holding.  In  1820,  Maine,  without  slaves,  and  in  1821  Missouri  with  slaves, 
followed.  In  1836  Michigan  at  the  north,  and  Arkansas  at  the  south,  were 
received  into  the  Union,  and  next  will  come  the  turn  of  the  slave-holding 
Florida,  and  the  non-slave-holding  Wisconsin.  It  should  be  observed  that 
Delaware,  "in  which  slavery  is  allowed  by  law,  may  be  considered  a  non- 
slave-holding  State,  and  is  often  reckoned  so.  The  President  has  generally 
been  from  the  South. 


152  LETTER  XIII. 

Federal  bond,"  says  the  North,  "  you  destroy  it.  If  you 
go  on  thus,  even  for  a  short  time,  the  Union  will  be  dis- 
solved indeed,  and  will  exist  only  in  name ;  the  slightest 
accident  will  then  be  enough  to  abolish  even  the  name." 
In  all  these  quarrels,  however,  even  in  that  of  Nullifica- 
tion, when  a  part  of  the  South  threatened  to  break  the 
Federal  compact,  they  have  hitherto  come  to  an  under- 
standing. Concessions  have  been  made  by  both  sides,  but 
more  often  by  the  North  than  by  the  South,  and  as  they 
have  so  long  continued  to  preserve  a  Union,  there  is  room 
to  hope,  that  they  will  still  be  able  to  live  together  for  a 
long  time  to  come. 

The  general  leaning  of  the  South  to  an  interpretation 
of  the  constitution  most  favourable  to  the  sovereignty  of 
the  States,  has  led  many  of  the  southern  politicians  to  main- 
tain the  doctrine  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  Bank ; 
although  in  opposition  to  a  formal  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  the  chief-justice  of  which, 
Judge  Marshall,  is  more  revered  throughout  the  Union, 
than  any  other  southern  man,  and  even  more  so  in  the 
South  than  elsewhere.  The  Constitution,  say  the  States' 
rights  puritans,  does  not  give  Congress  power  to  establish 
a  Bank  of  the  United  States.  On  the  other  side,  if  they 
are  ticklish  as  to  what  they  call  the  encroachments  of  one 
branch  of  the  national  government,  the  Congress,  they  are 
not  less  so  as  to  those  of  which  the  Opposition  accuses 
another  branch,  that  is,  the  President.  Thus  at  the  same 
moment  that  they  combat  the  Bank,  they  combat  the 
President  also,  on  account  of  his  measures  against  the 
Bank.  This  third  party  is  numerous  in  Virginia.  Now 
allowing  the  conclusions  of  the  States'  right  party  relative 
to  the  Bank  to  be  founded  on  a  strict  interpretation  of  the 
law,  they  are  none  the  less  inadmissible  in  practice.  And 
as  it  is  impossible  in  the  United  States  to  give  turrency 
to  the  maxim,  piish  the  colonies  rather  than  principle,  the 


THE  BANK- SLA  VERY.  153 

North  entertains  the  hope  that  the  States'  rights  party, 
after  the  example  of  some  of  its  leaders,  such  as  Mr  Cal- 
houn  and  Mr  McDuffie,  will  relax  a  little  of  the  rigour  of 
their  theories.  The  Administration,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  doing  its  utmost  to  preserve  the  theoretical  notions 
of  Virginia  on  the  Bank  question  in  all  their  original 
purity  on  their  native  soil,  and  Mr  Van  Buren,  who  is  far- 
sighted,  lately  sent  the  following  toast  to  a  4th  of  July 
dinner  in  that  State  :  "  Unqualified  war  on  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States" 

The  North,  fortunately  for  itself,  has  a  means  of  acting 
upon  the  South,  by  slavery.  This  requires  some  explana- 
tion. At  the  time  of  the  declaration  of  Independence 
(1776),  slavery  existed  in  all  the  States.  During  the  war 
of  the  Revolution,  Pennsylvania,  in  1780,  adopted  a  plan 
which  soon  exterminated  it  within  her  limits ;  Massachu- 
setts, in  1781,  proclaimed  slavery  to  be  incompatible  with 
the  laws  already  existing  ;  the  other  States  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  finally  New  York,  and  the  other  States  north  of 
the  Potomac,  with  the  exception  of  Delaware  and  Mary- 
land, adopted  measures  similar  to  those  of  Pennsylvania.* 
This  was  an  easy  matter  for  these  States,  their  slaves  not 
forming  more  than  one  twentieth  or  one  fifteenth  of  the 
whole  population.  But  it  was  a  very  different  affair  in 
the  South,  where  the  proportion  of  slaves  was  six  or  seven 
times  greater,  and  where  all  the  rural  labour  and  menial 
services  were  performed  by  slaves ;  the  institution  of 
slavery  was,  therefore,  permitted  to  stand,  in  the  South. 
The  acquisition  of  Louisiana  and  Florida  has  enlarged  the 
number  of  slave  States,  and  by  an  oversight,  which  will 
one  day  be  bitterly  rued,  slavery  has  been  authorised  in 
some  of  the  new  States,  such  as  Missouri,  where  it  would 


*  They  consisted  in  declaring  all  persons  born  after  a  certain  period  free, 
the  children  of  a  slave  to  remain  in  the  service  of  her  owner  during  a  cur- 
tain number  of  years. 

20 


154  LETTER  XIII. 

be  easy  to  do  without  the  blacks.*  In  1790,  there  were 
660,000  slavesf  distributed  in  six  States,  one  Territory, 
and  the  Federal  District ;  in  1830  there  were  2,000,000, 
in  twelve  States,  two  Territories,  and  the  Federal  District. 
The  white  population  of  the  slave  section,  in  1790,  was 
1,250,000,  or  as  190  to  100 ;  in  1830,  it  was  3,760,000, 
or  as  186  to  100.  The  proportional  increase  of  the  slave 
population  would  appear  still  greater  if  we  added  the  free 
blacks,  and  struck  out  the  States  of  Delaware  and  Mary- 
land. In  1830,  the  number  of  slaves  in  Louisiana  and 
South  Carolina  was  greater  than  that  of  the  whites. 

In  our  days,  slavery  is  a  scourge  to  all  the  countries  in 
which  it  exists  ;  of  this  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
in  the  South  as  well  as  in  the  North,  are  convinced  ;  but 
how  to  put  an  end  to  it  ?  The  bloody  experiment  of  St. 
Domingo  and  its  fatal  consequences  to  the  majority  of  the 
blacks  themselves,  offer  no  encouragement  to  immediate 
emancipation.  The  great  experiment  just  making  by  the 
English  government  in  its  colonies,;};  is  not  yet  advanced 
enough  to  afford  any  light.  Besides,  the  English  colonies 
contain  only  about  one  third  of  the  number  of  slaves  now 
in  the  United  States.  And  supposing  the  slaves  once 
emancipated,  what  shall  be  done  with  them  ?  This  ques- 
tion is  the  most  embarrassing  of  all,  to  one  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  wretched  condition  of  the  free  blacks 
in  the  United  States.  (See  Note  16.)  On  the  other  hand, 
the  difficulties  increase  with  the  progress  of  time,  and  the 
Southern  States  are,  or  think  they  are,  obliged  to  adopt 

*  At  the  time  of  its  admission  into  the  Union,  Missouri  contained  only 
ten  or  eleven  thousand  slaves,  which  might  have  been  easily  sold  in  the 
neighbouring  slave-holding  States. 

t  Deducting  those  in  the  Northern  States. 

\  The  indemnity  allowed  to  the  owners  amounts  to  about  125  dollars  a 
he^d,  which  for  2,500,000,  the  present  number  in  the  United  Statei,  would 
amount  to  about  312  millions. 


THE  BANK.— SLAVERY.  155 

measures  in  regard  to  the  black  population,  which  may  be 
defended  by  the  plea  of  necessity,  but  which  are  never- 
theless excessively  harsh.* 

In  spite  of  all  the  precautions  against  an  insurrection  of 
the  blacks,  the  solicitude  of  the  Southern  States  continu- 
ally increases ;  from  the  first  of  this  month  the  blacks  in 
the  English  West  Indies,  which  are  within  three  days' 
sail  of  the  United  States,  are  partially  free.  Between 
those  islands  and  the  southern  and  northern  ports,  there  is 
an  active  commerce,  and  the  communication  is  frequent. 
Finally,  religious  proselytism,  which  has  carried  the  mea- 
sure of  emancipation  in  England,  has  its  organs  in  the 
United  States.  There  are  not  wanting  philanthropists  in 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Ohio,  who  are  always  ready  to 
facilitate  the  escape  of  runaway  slaves.  Last  winter, 
while  I  was  at  Richmond,  40  or  50  slaves  disappeared, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  fanatics  of  Philadelphia  or 
New  England  furnished  them  the  means  of  flight.  The 
question  of  slavery,  then,  is,  of  all  others,  the  most  deep- 
ly interesting  and  alarming  to  the  Southern  States. 
Whenever  it  has  been  raised,  even  indirectly  and  seconda- 
rily, they  have  vehemently  remonstrated ;  the  moment  it 


*  Some  are  surprised,  that  the  slave  and  the  free  black  are  more  severely 
dealt  with  by  the  laws  of  the  Southern  States,  than  by  those  of  a  colony  be- 
longing to  an  absolute  monarchy,  Cuba  for  instance,  and  that,  for  example 
it  should  be  prohibited,  under  pain  of  fine  and  imprisonment,  to  teach  them 
to  read  or  write.  The  contrary  would  be  much  more  surprising.  In  a 
country  where  there  is  perfect  liberty  for  the  free  class,  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  sustain  slavery  unless  by  the  severest  legislation.  If  the  slave  should 
read  in  your  constitutions  and  bills  of  right,  "  that  all  men  are  born  free 
and  equal,"  how  can  it  be  that  he  would  not  be  in  a  standing  conspiracy 
against  you  ?  It  is  just  to  observe  that,  in  the  United  States,  the  slaves, 
though  intellectually  and  morally  degraded,  are  humanely  treated  in  a  phy- 
sical point  of  view.  They  are  less  severely  tasked,  better  fed,  and  better 
taken  care  of,  than  most  of  the  peasants  of  Europe.  Their  rapid  increase 
attests  their  easy  condition. 


156  LETTER  XIII. 

is  touched,  their  voice  is  heard ;  this  is  their  weak  side ; 
here  the  North  has  a  hold  upon  them. 

In  regard  to  slavery,  the  Northern  States  have  never 
departed  from  the  policy  of  concession.  This  conduct  of 
the  North  may  even  appear  like  culpable  connivance,  to 
Europeans  not  aware  that  the  most  precious  treasure  of 
North  America,  that  is  to  say,  the  Union,  has  been  at  stake. 
The  Northern  States  have  written  in  their  laws  all  that 
the  South  has  demanded  ;  they  have  granted  to  the  south- 
ern master  the  right  to  claim  his  runaway  slave  before 
their  own  courts,  so  that  the  republican  soil  of  the  North 
does  not  enjoy  the  privilege  which  belongs  to  some  of  the 
monarchical  countries  of  Europe,  that  of  giving  liberty  to 
whoever  sets  his  foot  upon  it.  The  North  has  permitted 
slavery  to  be  maintained  in  the  Federal  District,  in  Wash- 
ington, at  the  foot  of  the  Capitol  steps.  The  North,  see- 
ing the  South  in  a  flame  on  the  Missouri  question,  stifled 
its  just  repugnance  to  her  admission.  The  North,  which 
has  an  interest  in  the  recognition  of  Hayti,  has  yielded 
that  point,  because  the  South  declares  that  it  would  be 
an  encouragement  to  the  slaves  to  revolt.  Thus  to  main- 
tain harmony  in  the  Union,  the  North  has  pushed  its  con- 
cessions even  to  silencing  its  religious  feelings,  its  princi- 
ples of  liberty,  its  commercial  interests.  As  the  Union 
promotes  the  good  of  all,  all  ought  to  be  ready  to  make 
sacrifices  to  preserve  it,  and  it  would  be  just,  that  the 
South  should  renounce  its  theories  about  the  constitution- 
ality of  a  National  Bank,  theories  which  are  belied  by 
long  practice,  and  which  have  been  formally  condemned 
by  judges,  of  whom  the  South  itself  is  proud. 

Some  months  ago  the  public  clamour  imposed  silence 
on  the  Abolition  Societies  in  the  North,  whose  object  is 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  South.  The  newspapers 
contain  details  of  the  devastation  and  pillage  committed 
by  a  handful  of  people  on  the  poor,  inoffensive  blacks. 


THE  ELECTIONS.  157 

during  three  consecutive  nights  of  July,  in  New  York, 
and  during  the  same  number  in  Philadelphia,  about  a 
week  ago.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  accuse  the  Opposition, 
which  has  the  majority  in  these  two  cities,  of  having  been 
an  accomplice  of  these  wretches !  Yet  I  believe  I  state  a 
fact  when  I  say,  that  those  terrible  riots,  in  which  houses, 
schools,  and  churches  were  plundered  and  pulled  down 
every  evening  by  the  dozen,  and  in  which  peaceable  per- 
sons of  colour  were  robbed  and  personally  abused,  would 
have  been  more  promptly  repressed,  had  not  the  North, 
above  all  things  else,  been  eager  to  punish  the  Abolitionists, 
and  to  show  to  the  South  that  it  had  nothing  in  common 
with  them.  The  North,  in  a  word,  has  given  and  con- 
tinues to  give  to  the  South  every  conceivable  guarantee  on 
the  subject  of  slavery.  The  South,  which  may  one  day 
need,  not  merely  the  passive  forbearance,  but  the  active 
aid  of  the  North  against  insurrection,  should  consider  if 
the  North  exacts  too  much  in  return,  in  asking  toleration 
for  an  institution  indispensable  to  the  North,  and  from 
which  the  South  itself  has  received  nothing  but  favours. 


LETTER    XIV. 

THE     ELECTIONS. 

NEW  YORK,  Nov.  11,  1834. 

THE  autumnal  elections  have  taken  place  in  most  of  the 
States,  and  have  resulted  favourably  to  the  democratic 
party  and  the  President.  Last  April  the  mayor  of  New 
York,  who  is  a  Jackson  man,  was  chosen  by  the  small 
majority  of  181  votes  out  of  35,147,  and  the  Opposition 


158  LETTER  XIV. 

prevailed  in  the  Common  Council.  The  majority  in  favour 
of  General  Jackson  is  now  2,400 ;  several  causes  have 
contributed  to  produce  this  result. 

The  name  of  the  Bank,  whose  cause  is  closely  con- 
nected with  that  of  the  Opposition,  sounds  more  and  more 
odious  to  the  ears  of  the  multitude  ;  this  is  unjust,  but  it 
is,  nevertheless,  true,  and  some  of  the  late  measures  of  the 
Bank  have  redoubled  the  animosity  of  the  democratical 
party  towards  it.  It  refused  to  show  its  books  to  the  com- 
mittee of  inquiry  appointed  by  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, unless  in  the  presence  of  the  officers  of  the  Bank, 
and  its  enemies  have  persuaded  the  multitude,  that  the 
Monster  dared  not  reveal  the  secrets  of  its  den  to  the 
representatives  of  the  people.*  The  Bank  persists,  con- 
formably to  the  custom  of  merchants,  in  demanding  dam- 
ages on  account  of  the  protest  by  the  French  government 
of  the  bill  of  exchange  sold  to  the  Bank  by  the  Adminis- 
tration, and  has  withheld  the  dividends  due  the  United 
States  on  their  stock.  The  purpose  is  merely,  say  the 
officers  of  the  Bank,  to  bring  the  question  of  damages  be- 
fore the  proper  tribunal.  But  the  democratic  party  takes 
this  act  as  the  text  for  its  tirades  against  the  Bank.  "  Be- 
hold it,"  they  say,  "  setting  itself  above  the  laws,  taking 
the  execution  of  justice  into  its  own  hands,  and  under 
false  pretences,  laying  hold  of  the  public  money."  In 
both  these  cases  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  right  was 
wholly  on  the  side  of  the  Bank,  but  appearances  are 
against  it,  and  nothing  can  be  more  injurious  to  it  in  a  coun- 
try governed  by  universal  suffrage.  Many  of  its  friends, 
admitting  that  the  course  of  the  Bank  has  been  strictly 
legal,  would  have  preferred  that  a  more  prudent  policy 
had  been  adopted,  both  for  the  interest  of  the  Bank  itself 
and  of  the  Opposition. 

x 

•  The  reason  given  for  this  refusal  was  the  indiscreet  use  by  a  former 
committee  of  inquiry,  of  notes  made  during  a  similar  examination 


THE  ELECTIONS.  159 

The  silence  of  the  principal  speakers  in  Congress,  who 
are  almost  all  in  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition,  has  no  less 
contributed  to  swell  its  losses  since  the  close  of  the  session. 
The  friends  of  the  Administration  in  Congress,  and  more 
especially  in  the  Senate,  were  beaten  in  debate,  they  felt 
it  themselves,  and  their  whole  appearance  was  a  formal 
confession  of  defeat ;  the  whole  party  was  disconcerted  by 
this  hesitation  and  embarrassment  of  the  leaders.  Since 
the  30th  of  June,  the  party,  generals  and  soldiers,  has  had 
time  to  rally ;  they  have  restored  their  ranks  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  fire  of  Messrs  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster, 
and  they  have  gained  a  victory,  which  four  months  ago 
they  could  not  have  hoped  for.  The  revival  of  business 
in  the  country  has  also  turned  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
Opposition.  During  the  April  elections  in  New  York,  the 
community  was  just  recovering  from  a  crisis,  all  classes 
had  suffered  and  were  still  suffering.  It  was  difficult  to 
deny,  that  the  distress  had  been  caused  by  the  President's 
attack  on  the  Bank,  in  what  he  himself  called  an  experi- 
ment. Commerce  is  now  active  again,  the  autumn  busi- 
ness has  been  good,  and  every  thing  encourages  the  ex- 
pectation of  a  not  less  favourable  state  of  the  spring-trade. 
General  Jackson's  experiment  seems  then  to  have  succeed- 
ed ;  and  a  great  number  of  persons  who  belong  to  the 
democratic  party  as  their  natural  element,  and  who  had 
quitted  it  in  the  spring,  have  very  naturally  fallen  back 
into  its  ranks. 

But  it  is  proper  to  explain  the  real  extent  of  this  victory 
of  the  Administration  ;  the  Opposition  has  not  actually 
been  driven  from  its  former  positions,  but  the  Jackson 
party  has  maintained  the  greater  number  of  those  it  be- 
fore occupied,  and  has  particularly  stood  firm  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York.  In  a  word,  to  judge  by  the  elec- 
tions that  have  already  taken  place,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives in  the  session  that  begins  at  the  close  of  1835, 


160  LETTER  XIV. 

will  be,  like  the  present  House,  composed  of  a  majority  of 
Jackson  men.  The  Opposition,  however,  has  gained 
rather  than  lost.  It  has  carried  the  State  of  Maryland  by 
a  considerable  majority,  and  has  even  gained  the  demo- 
cratic State  of  Ohio,  upon  which  it  hardly  calculated  ;  ten 
Representatives  out  of  nineteen  from  that  State,  belong  to 
the  Opposition,  and  although  the  Governor  is  of  the  Jack- 
son party,  the  majority  of  the  State  legislature  is  Anti- 
Jackson,  an  important  circumstance  because  the  legisla- 
tures elect  the  Senators  in  Congress. 

The  elections  in  Pennsylvania,  where  the  Opposition 
has  lost  two  representatives,  have  surprised  no  one,  but 
those  in  New  York  have  disappointed  all  calculations.  I 
know  that  some  well-informed  Jackson  men,  who  had 
formed  correct  anticipations  in  regard  to  former  elections, 
did  not  expect  a  majority  of  more  than  three  or  four  hun- 
dred in  the  city,  and,  as  I  have  before  observed,  they  had 
one  of  2,400.  The  Opposition  thought  itself  able  to  con- 
test the  possession  of  the  State,  and  relied  upon  carrying 
the  city.  It  is  certainly  extraordinary,  that  the  commer- 
cial interest  should  be  beaten  in  the  first  commercial  city 
in  the  New  World,  and  such  a  result  does  no  honour  to  the 
system  which  has  caused  it.  The  unexpected  triumph  of 
the  Opposition  in  Ohio  had  redoubled  their  confidence  in 
New  York ;  they  had  celebrated  with  great  display 
the  junction  of  the  young  giant  of  the  West  with  the 
Anti-Jackson  forces.  One  of  the  magnificent  steam- 
boats belonging  to  the  New  York  and  Albany  line,  and 
called  the  Ohio,  had  been  sent  up  the  river  with  cannon, 
and  the  roar  of  its  guns  had  been  mingled  with  the  shout 
of  the  towns  and  villages  on  the  Hudson.  The  little  frigate 

Constitution,  the  palladium  of  the  opposition  in  New  York,* 

* 

*  This  is  a  miniature  frigate  that  takes  its  name  from  a  favorite  ship  in  the 
American  navy,  which  covered  herself  with  glory  in  the  last  war  under  the 
command  of  Hull,  Bainbridge,  and  Stewart. 


THE  ELECTIONS.  161 

had  been  publicly  paraded  before  the  eyes  of  the  multi- 
tude. A  packet-boat  had  been  sent  up  the  canal  from 
Albany,  and  made  the  new  and  flourishing  towns,  which 
at  once  give  to  and  take  from  that  great  artery  of  the 
State,  life,  activity,  and  wealth,  to  resound  with  salvos  of 
artillery  in  honor  of  Ohio.  But  now  the  cannon  of  the 
Opposition  is  silent,  and  that  of  Tammany  Hall  only  is 
heard.  The  little  frigate,  which  during  the  elections  was 
hung  up  before  the  head-quarters  of  the  Opposition,  no 
longer  displays  the  coloured  lights  with  which  her  rigging 
was  then  illuminated.  The  streets  of  New  York,  which 
do  not  indeed  require  it,  receive  no  additional  light,  except 
from  the  Jackson  processions,  which  parade  them  nightly 
by  torch-light. 

The  New  York  elections  are  not  only  important  in  their 
results,  but  also  on  account  of  the  order  which  prevailed 
while  they  were  going  on.  During  the  last  six  months, 
the  spirit  of  anarchy  had  raised  its  head  in  the  United 
States  in  such  a  manner  as  to  inspire  serious  alarm,  even 
among  those  not  prone  to  be  timid.  You  know  what 
happened  in  New  York  during  the  April  elections  ;  several 
months  later,  in  July,  the  city  became  the  theatre  of  a 
series  of  outrages  against  the  poor  blacks,  which  were  re- 
peated several  nights.  In  August  the  same  excesses  were 
committed  in  Philadelphia,  under  the  same  pretext,  and 
with  no  less  audacity  and  perseverance  :  then  came  the 
brutal  assault  on  the  convent  in  Charlestown,  when  the 
retreat  of  peaceful  nuns  devoted  to  the  education  of  young 
girls  was  attacked,  plundered,  and  burnt  down,  without 
the  Selectmen  of  the  town  having  the  power  or  the  cour- 
age to  make  head  against  the  rioters,  and  without  the 
well-disposed  citizens,  taken  by  surprise  by  this  act  of 
savage  intolerance,  venturing  to  interfere.  (See  Note  17). 
Hardly  a  month  since,  there  was  also  an  incendiary  con- 
flagration at  Philadelphia  on  the  evening  of  the  election  ; 
21 


162  LETTER  XIV. 

six  houses  were  burnt,  and  the  fire-men  were  driven  off  by 
the  rioters,  as  at  Charlestown,  by  main  force.  The  same 
evening,  an  event  of  a  more  grave  character  occurred ; 
several  muskets  were  discharged  by  some  of  the  Opposi- 
tion whom  the  mob  had  assailed  with  stones,  several  per- 
sons were  wounded,  and  one  or  two  killed.  A  week  before, 
during  the  preparatory  elections,  an  obscure  and  peace- 
able individual  was  killed  by  a  stab  with  a  dagger. 

A  repetition  of  these  scenes  of  disorder  was  feared  in 
New  York  ;  but  nothing  of  the  sort  occurred.  Nearly 
36.000  voters  exercised  their  right  of  suffrage  without  any 
disturbance,  although  both  parties  were  highly  excited. 
The  merit  of  this  wise  conduct  is  wholly  due  to  the  peo- 
ple ;  the  Common  Council  had.  indeed,  taken  extraordi- 
nary measures  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace,  but  what 
is  here  considered  extraordinary,  hardly  comes  up  to  the 
ordinary  police  in  Europe.  If  the  multitude  in  the  United 
States  abstain  from  acts  of  violence,  it  is  because  they 
choose  to  do  so  ;  if  they  preserve  order,  it  is  because  they 
love  order.  Three  hundred  constables  more  or  less,  in  a 
city  of  260,000  souls,  like  New  York,  could  do  nothing. 
Some  persons,  however,  attribute  this  moderation  of  the 
democracy  wholly  to  its  confidence  in  success,  and  insist, 
that,  if  there  had  been  any  symptoms  of  the  elections 
going  the  other  way,  the  streets  would  have  been  thronged, 
as  in  April,  by  bodies  of  men  armed  with  clubs. 

The  fate  of  the  Bank  has  been  decided  by  these  elec- 
tions. In  fifteen  months  its  charter  expires,  and  the  Bank 
will  die,  to  be  revived  ere  long  under  a  new  form,  when  a 
new  series  of  commercial  disasters,  shall  have  proved  to 
the  conviction  of  the  most  incredulous,  that  they  cannot 
get  along  without  it.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  that  it  falls  by 
the  hands  of  the  two  States  that  owe  it  the  most, 'New 
York  and  Pennsylvania.  The  blindness  of  Pennsylvania 
in  particular  is  inexplicable.  Who  would  expect  this  stu- 


THE  ELECTIONS.  163 

pid  fury  in  drying  up  the  sources  of  its  own  prosperity  ? 
For  without  the  Philadelphia  capital,  the  interior  districts 
of  the  State  would  yet  be  a  wilderness ;  its  one  thousand 
miles  of  canals  and  railroads,  its  innumerable  bridges,  the 
finest  wooden  structures  in  the  world,  its  numerous  roads, 
its  manufactures  and  mines  which  now  enrich  it,  would 
not  exist.  Some  persons  assert,  that  Pennsylvania,  which 
begins  with  perhaps  the  most  enlightened  and  refined  city 
in  the  United  States,  ends  with  a  rural  population  of  Ger- 
man origin,  the  most  ignorant  and  stupid  in  North  America. 
The  conduct  of  the  Pennsylvanians  in  regard  to  the  Bank 
is  not  calculated  to  change  the  opinion  of  these  severe 
judges.*  As  for  the  New  York  electors,  it  may  be  sup- 
posed, that,  if  the  seat  of  the  Mother  Bank  were  in  their 
capital,  the  votes  of  the  town  and  the  State  would  have 
resulted  very  differently. 

The  only  chance  left  for  the  Bank  is,  that  the  portion  of 
the  South  which  is  under  the  influence  of  Virginia,  should 
condescend  to  lend  it  a  helping  hand.  Such  an  act  of 
generous  compassion  on  the  part  of  the  South  is  not  proba- 
ble, but  it  is  not  absolutely  impossible.  I  have  often  been 
present  at  discussions  between  men  of  the  South  and  the 
North,,  in  which  the  latter  have  said  to  the  former  :  "With- 
out us  you  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  your  slaves.;  it  is 
our  union  with  you  which  will  prevent  them  from  rising 
and  cutting  your  throats."  The  Southerners  answered : 
"  We  will  take  it  upon  ourselves  to  keep  down  our  slaves  ; 
we  shall  have  no  need  of  your  help  against  any  attempts 
at  insurrection  for  a  long  time  to  come.  All  we  ask  of 
you  is,  not  to  stir  them  up  to  revolt.  But  as  for  you,  why 
you  are  yourselves  overwhelmed  by  a  flood  of  ultra-dem- 

*  The  able  Correa,  for  some  time  Portuguese  minister  to  the  United  States, 
used  to  say,  that  this  State  reminded  him  of  the  Sphinx,  which  had  the  head 
of  an  angel,  and  the  body  of  a  beast.  This  saying  is  often  quoted  in  the 
United  States. 


164  LETTER  XIV. 

ocracy.  Your  workmen  give  you  the  law.  Before  long 
you  will  be  glad  to  get  the  aid  of  the  South  to  restore  the 
balance  which  your  universal  suffrage  has  destroyed."  The 
South  has  now  a  fine  opportunity  to  exercise  in  the  North 
this  moderating  power  of  which  it  boasts  the  possession. 

Frederic  the  Great,  having  gained  a  victory  over  the 
Imperialists  just  after  the  battle  of  Pontenoy,  wrote  to 
Louis  XV.  :  "  I  have  just  paid  the  draft  which  your 
majesty  drew  on  me  at  Fontenoy."  General  Jackson  has 
honoured  the  bill  drawn  on  him  by  the  New  York  electors 
more  promptly.  A  circular  has  been  directed  by  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  to  the  receivers  of  the  public  mo- 
ney, prohibiting  the  reception  of  certain  drafts  on  the 
branch  banks.  These  drafts  were  issued,  merely  because 
it  was  physically  impossible  for  the  president  and  cashier 
of  .the  Mother  Bank  to  sign  five  and  ten  dollar  notes,  fast 
enough  to  supply  the  place  of  those  that  were  worn  out 
or  torn  in  the  course  of  circulation.  They  have  the  same 
form  with  the  Bank-notes,  and  pass  like  them,  although  the 
charter  of  the  Bank  makes  no  mention  of  them.  This  act 
of  the  Administration  will,  however,  do  no  injury  to  the 
Bank ;  for  if  it  is  obliged  to  withdraw  all  these  drafts, 
amounting  to  seven  millions,  from  circulation,  there  is 
nothing  to  prevent  its  issuing  bills  to  the  same  amount. 
The  Bank  is  prepared  for  every  event ;  the  amount  of  its 
bills  in  circulation  comprising  the  drafts  on  the  branches, 
does  not  exceed  17  millions,  and  its  means  in  specie,  or 
other  property  that  can  be  realised  at  a  moment's  warning, 
exceed  20  millions.  It  will  merely  be  necessary  for  the 
president,  Mr  Biddle,  and  the  cashier,  Mr  Jaudon,  who 
were  already  crowded  with  business,  to  devote  three  or 
four  hours  a  day  to  signing  bills  ;  for  the  branch  drafts 
were  only  designed  to  relieve  them  from  this  duty.  The 
order  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  amounts,  therefore, 
merely  to  a  task  inflicted  on  those  gentlemen. 


THE  ELECTIONS.  165 

On  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  there  is  at  present  a  re- 
action against  the  aristocracy  of  money.  Whilst  here  the 
eternal  chorus  of  No  BANK  !  DOWN  WITH  THE  BANK  ! 
No  RAG-MONEY  !  is  forever  displayed  on  the  liberty-poles 
and  the  flags  of  the  democracy,  amongst  us  the  bankers 
are  denounced  from  the  national  tribune  by  our  most  able 
speakers.  Do  those  who  hope  that  industry  will  soon 
raise  itself  to  political  influence  and  dignity,  deceive  them- 
selves then  ?  Or  are  not  rather  the  industrial  classes 
themselves,  and  particularly  those  who  are  at  their  headp 
the  financial  class,  yet  unconscious  of  their  future  destiny, 
and  too  slow  to  shake  off  the  bad  habits  which  they  con- 
tracted when  the  sword  was  law,  and  work  was  the  lot  of 
slaves  and  serfs  ?  Do  not  these  Princes  of  Industry  pay 
too  little  regard  to  those  lofty  and  noble  sentiments  which 
are  well  worth  letters  of  nobility,  and  without  which  no 
supremacy  could  ever  be  sustained  ?  To  engage  in  public 
affairs  with  dignity,  the  hands  must  be  clean,  the  public 
good  must  be  prized  above  the  money  bags  ;  and  yet,  such 
is  the  state  of  commercial  dealings  in  our  day,  that,  with- 
out inheriting  a  double  share  of  generosity  and  patriotism, 
it  is  difficult  to  escape  from  them  without  becoming  con- 
taminated and  .callous.  How  many  honorable  men  are 
there  not  in  the  industrial  ranks,  who  groan  over  the  cus- 
toms to  which  they  are  obliged  to  conform,  over  the  exam- 
ples which  they  are  obliged  to  imitate  ?  The  Bank  of 
the  United  States  must  pay  the  penalty  of  the  vices, 
which  even  in  our  day  degrade  commerce,  but  which  are 
henceforth  to  belong  only  to  history.  It  is  punished  for 
the  sins  of  others,  for  this  great  institution  has  not  itself 
deserved  the  reproach  of  cupidity ;  the  services  it  has 
rendered  to  the  country  are  immense  ;  those  which  it  has 
rendered  itself,  that  is  to  say,  its  profits,  have  been  mode- 
rate. 

I  must,,  however,  do  America  the  justice  to  observe, 


166  LETTER  XV. 

that,  although  the  desire  to  make  money  is  universal,  yet 
in  the  principal  and  older  commercial  centres,  there  is 
more  honesty  and  less  illiberality  than  amongst  us. 
American  selfishness  is  less  contracted  than  ours  ;  it  does 
not  stoop  to  petty  meannesses  ;  it  operates  on  a  more 
liberal  scale.  There  are  certainly  wild  speculators,  blind 
and  desperate  gamblers  here  also  :  but  the  objects  of  their 
schemes  are  almost  always  enterprises  of  public  utility. 
The  spirit  of  speculation  in  the  United  States  has  strown 
this  vast  country  with  useful  works,  canals,  railroads, 
turnpike-roads,  with  manufactories,  farms,  villages,  and 
towns ;  amongst  us  it  has  been  more  rash,  wild,  and  fool- 
ish, and  much  less  productive  in  useful  results.  It  is  with 
us  mere  stock-jobbing,  without  any  good  influence  on 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  ;  it  is  a  game  in  which  the 
dice  are  loaded,  in  which  the  credulous  lose  the  earnings 
of  years  in  a  fever-fit  of  a  moment.  Its  only  results  are 
ruin  and  despair,  and  if  it  contributes  to  people  any  thing, 
it  is  the  cells  of  the  mad-house.  These  are  sad  truths,  but 
truths  which  it  may  be  useful  to  utter. 


LETTER   XV. 

PITTSBURG. 

PITTSBURG,  NOVEMBER  24,  1834. 

SEVENTYSIX  years  ago  this  day,  a  handful  of  French- 
men sorrowfully  evacuated  a  fort,  which  stood  on  the 
point  of  land  where  the  Alleghany  and  Monongahela 
mingle  their  waters  to  form  the  Ohio.  The  French, 
with  their  faithful  allies  the  Indians,  had  made  a  vigour- 


P1TTSBURG.  1(57 

ous  resistance ;  they  had  defeated  the  expedition  sent 
against  them  in  1754,  and  compelled  Washington,  then  a 
lieutenant-colonel  in  the  Virginia  militia,  to  surrender  Fort 
Necessity.  They  had  routed  the  troops  of  the  boastful 
Braddock,  and  spread  terror,  of  which  the  memory  is  not 
yet  effaced,  through  the  English  colonies.  But  the  desti- 
ny of  France  was  then  in  the  hands  of  him,  who  of  all 
her  kings  will  be  most  severely  judged  by  the  tribunal  of 
history.  Under  that  most  dissolute  and  selfish  prince, 
France,  sacrificed  to  the  paltry  intrigues  of  the  bed-cham- 
ber, humbled  at  home,  could  not  triumph  abroad.  The 
French  were,  therefore,  obliged  to  abandon  Fort  Duquesne  ; 
on  that  day,  November  24,  1758,  one  of  the  most  magni- 
ficent schemes  ever  projected,  was  annihilated. 

France  had  then  possession  of  Canada  and  Louisiana  ; 
we  were  then  masters  of  the  two  finest  rivers,  the  two 
largest  and  richest  basins  of  North  America,  that  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  that  of  the  Mississippi.*  Between  these 
two  basins  nature  has  raised  no  barrier,  so  that  in  the 
rainy  seasons,  canoes  can  pass  from  Lake  Michigan  into 
the  bed  of  the  Illinois,  and  continue  their  course  thence 
without  any  obstruction  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The 
plan  of  our  heroic  pioneers,  priests,  sailors,  and  soldiers, 
had  been  to  found  the  empire  of  New  France  in  this  great 
valley.  It  is  beyond  a  doubt,  that  this  idea  had  attracted 
the  attention  of  Louis  XIV.,  arid  that  its  execution  was 
already  begun  by  the  erection  of  a  chain  of  posts,  the 
sites  of  which  were  admirably  chosen.  There  is  no  coun- 
try in  the  world  which  comprises  such  an  amount  of  so 
highly  fertile  land  ;  none  which  offers  natural  routes  of 
communication  comparable  to  the  net-work  of  navigable 

*  The  valley  of  the  Mississippi  with  a  small  part  of  that  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence belonging  to  the  United  States,  is  six  times  larger  than  all  France.  A 
large  tract  in  the  extreme  west  is  sterile  ;  but  the  most  fertile  portion,  alrea- 
dy occupied  by  States  and  Territories,  is  three  times  as  large  as  France. 


168  LKTTER  XV 

rivers  and  streams  spread  over  this  great  region.  There  is 
none  more  healthy,  for  with  the  exception  of  a  few  points 
or  tracts  subject  to  autumnal  fevers,  but  which  rapidly 
lose  this  character  when  brought  under  cultivation,  there 
are  only  two  infected  spots,  New  Orleans  and  Natchez,  in 
which  the  yellow  fever  occasionally  makes  its  appearance, 
during  a  few  months  in  the  year.  The  sums  swallowed  up 
by  one  of  the  foolish  wars  of  Louis  XV.,  would  probably 
have  been  amply  sufficient  to  accomplish  this  noble  pro- 
ject. But  the  enterprise,  although  pushed  forward  by  the 
local  agents  with  admirable  zeal  and  sagacity,  encountered 
only  indifference  from  the  ministers  at  home,  the  great 
point  of  whose  policy  was  to  know,  who  was  to  be  the 
favourite  mistress  of  his  Most  Christian  Majesty  on  the 
morrow.  The  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  the  conquest  of  all  Canada  by  the  English  ;  and 
in  1763,  by  the  treaty  of  Paris  (these  treaties  of  Paris 
never  bode  us  any  good),  France,  exhibiting  an  example  of 
that  complete  submission  and  flat  despair,  of  which  our 
annals  exhibit  so  many  instances,  and  the  English  so  few, 
ceded  the  basin  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  left  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  to  England,  with  one  hand,  and  the  right 
bank  of  that  great  river  to  Spain,  with  the  other. 

Thus  it  came  to  pass,  that  the  empire  of  New  France, 
like  so  many  other  magnificent  schemes  conceived  in  our 
country,  existed  only  on  paper,  or  in  the  visions  of  youth- 
ful officers,  full  of  sagacity  and  boldness,  and  intrepid  mis- 
sionaries, heroes  alike  without  a  name,  whose  memory  is 
honoured  only  in  the  wigwam  of  some  poor  exiled  Sa- 
chem. Fort  Duquesne  is  now  become  Pittsburg  ;  in  vain 
did  I  piously  search  for  some  relics  of  the  French  fortress  : 
there  is  no  longer  a  stone,  a  brick,  on  the  Ohio,  to  attest 
that  France  bore  sway  here.* 

*  At  Kingston,  (U.  C.)  the  site  of  Fort  Frontenac,  I  found  the  remains  of 
a  wall  built  by  La  Salle,  or  one  of  his  successors,  in  the  barrack  yard  of  one 
of  the  English  regiments. 


PITTSBURGH  169 

Pittsburg  is  at  present  essentially  pacific ;  if  cannon  and 
balls  are  seen  here,  it  is  because  a  trading  people  make  it 
a  rule  to  supply  the  market  with  whatever  is  wanted. 
The  cannon  are  new,  fresh  from  the  mould,  and  equally 
at  the  disposition  of  the  Sultan  Mahmoud,  or  the  Emperor 
of  Morocco,  or  the  government  of  the  States,  whichever 
will  pay  for  them.  Pittsburg  is  a  manufacturing  town, 
which  will  one  day  become  the  Birmingham  of  America  ; 
one  of  its  suburbs  has  already  received  that  name.  It  is 
surrounded,  like  Birmingham  and  Manchester,  with  a 
dense,  black  smoke,  which,  bursting  forth  in  volumes  from 
the  founderies,  forges,  glass-houses,  and  the  chimneys  of 
all  the  manufactories  and  houses,  falls  in  flakes  of  soot 
upon  the  dwellings  and  persons  of  the  inhabitants  ;  it  is, 
therefore,  the  dirtiest  town  in  the  United  States.  Pitts- 
burg is  far  from  being  as  populous  as  Birmingham,  but  it 
exhibits  proportionally  a  greater  activity.  Nowhere  in  the 
world  is  everybody  so  regularly  and  continually  busy  as 
in  Pittsburg ;  I  do  not  believe  there  is  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  including  the  United  States,  where  in  general  very 
little  time  is  given  to  pleasure,  a  single  town  in  which  the 
idea  of  amusement  so  seldom  enters  the  heads  of  the  in- 
habitants. Pittsburg  is,  therefore,  one  of  the  least  amusing 
cities  in  the  world ;  there  is  no  interruption  of  business  for 
six  days  in  the  week,  except  during  the  three  meals,  the 
longest  of  which  occupies  hardly  ten  minutes,  and  Sunday 
in  the  United  States,  instead  of  being,  as  with  us,  a  day 
of  recreation  and  gaiety,  is,  according  to  the  English  cus- 
tom, carried  to  a  greater  degree  of  rigour  by  the  Anglo- 
Americans,  consecrated  to  prayer,  meditation,  and  retire- 
ment. By  means  of  this  energetic  assiduity  in  work, 
which  is  common  to  all  ages  and  classes,  and  by  the  aid 
of  numerous  steam-engines  which  labour  like  humble 
slaves,  the  inhabitants  of  Pittsburg  create  an  amount  of 
products,  altogether  dispro portioned  to  their  number.  The 


1 70  LETTER  XV. 

nature,  bulk,  and  weight  of  the  articles  make  this  dispro- 
portion more  striking ;  for,  whether  it  be  that  American 
art,  yet  a  novice,  cannot  give  the  finish  required  for  articles 
of  luxury  and  ornament,  or  that  the  Americans  have  the 
good  sense  to  discern  at  a  glance,  that  the  manufacture  of 
objects  of  the  first  necessity  or  of  essential  use,  is  more 
profitable  than  that  of  the  trinkets  with  which  civilisation 
seeks  to  adorn  herself  wherever  there  is  wealth,  and  even 
where  there  is  none,  only  the  ruder  and  coarser  kinds  of 
work  are  done  in  Pittsburg. 

Although  Pittsburg  is  at  this  moment  the  first  manu- 
facturing town  in  the  Union,  it  is  yet  far  from  what  it  is 
destined  one  day  to  become.  It  stands  in  the  midst  of  an 
extensive  coal-formation,  the  beds  of  which  are  very  easily 
worked.  The  district  east  of  Pittsburg  furnishes  much 
pig-iron,  which  is  brought  hither  to  be  converted  into 
malleable  iron,  or  into  all  kinds  of  machines,  tools,  and 
utensils.  Pittsburg  has  then  coal  and  iron  within  reach  ; 
that  is  to  say,  power,  and  the  lever  by  which  the  power  is 
to  be  applied.  The  vent  for  its  wares  is  still  more  vast 
than  its  means,  for  the  whole  basin  of  the  Mississippi, 
with  all  its  lateral  valleys,  which  on  our  continent  would 
be  basins  of  the  first  class,  lies  open  to  it.  The  popula- 
tion, which  improves  in  its  condition,  as  rapidly  as  it  in- 
creases in  numbers,*  creates  an  indefinite  demand  for  the 
engines  and  machines,  hollow-ware,  nails,  horse-shoes, 
glass,  tools  and  implements,  pottery,  and  stuffs  of  Pittsburg. 
It  needs  axes  to  fell  the  primitive  forests,  saws  to  convert 
the  trees  into  boards,  plough-shares  and  spades  to  turn  up 


*  The  valley  of  the  Mississippi  contained,  exclusive  of  Indians, 

In  1762  about  100,000  inhabitants,         In  1810         1,365,000     , 
In  1790  150,000  In  1820         2,625,000 

In  1800  580,000  In  1830         4,232,000 

The  Indians,  now  mostly  removed  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  number 

oply  about  300,000  souls. 


PITTSBURG.  171 

the  soil  once  cleared.  It  requires  steam-engines  for  the 
fleet  of  steamers,  which  throng  the  western  waters.  It 
must  have  nails,  hinges,  latches,  and  other  kinds  of  hard- 
ware for  houses  ;  it  must  have  white  lead  to  paint  them, 
glass  to  light  them ;  and  all  these  new  households  must 
have  furniture  and  bed  linen,  for  here  every  one  makes 
himself  comfortable. 

Thus  Pittsburg  is  beginning  to  be  what  Birmingham 
and  St  Etienne  are,  and  what  several  places  in  the  depart- 
ments of  the  Aveyron  and  Gard  will  become,  when  we 
become  more  enterprising^  and  use  the  proper  exertions  to 
develop  all  the  resources  now  buried  in  the  bowels  of  our 
belle  France,  for  so  it  is  called  everywhere  abroad.  Pitts- 
burg  is  beside  and  must  be  a  commercial  city,  a  great  mart. 
Standing  at  the  head  of  steam  navigation  on  the  Ohio,  it 
is,  directly  or  indirectly,  that  is  through  the  medium  of 
the  more  central  cities  of  Cincinnati  and  Louisville,  the 
natural  entrepot  between  the  upper  and  lower  country,  the 
North  and  the  South.  Pennsylvania  has  spared  no  pains 
to  secure  and  extend  the  advantages  resulting  from  this 
situation.  It  has  made  Pittsburg  one  of  the  pivots  of  its 
great  system  of  internal  improvements,  which  was  under- 
taken with  such  boldness,  and  has  been  pursued  with  such 
perseverance.  Pittsburg  is  connected  with  Philadelphia 
by  a  line  of  railroads  and  canals  nearly  four  hundred  miles 
in  length,  and  the  numerous  branches  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Canal  give  it  a  communication  with  all  the  most  impor- 
tant points  in  the  State.  A  direct  communication  with 
Lake  Erie  is,  indeed,  wanting,  but  it  will  soon  have  a 
double  and  triple  one.  A  railroad,  300  miles  in  length  is 
projected  between  Baltimore  and  the  Ohio,  and  one  third 
of  the  distance  is  already  completed ;  the  legislature  of 
Pennsylvania  have  made  it  a  condition  that  the  western 
terminus  of  this  work  shall  be  at  Pittsburg.  A  canal,  for 
which  the  plans  and  drawings  were  furnished  by  General 


172  LETTER  XV. 

Bernard,  is  to  connect  Chesapeake  Bay  by  the  way  of 
Washington  with  the  Ohio,  and  the  same  condition  in 
favour  of  Pittsburg  has  been  prescribed  in  this  case. 

Pittsburg  is  one  of  the  few  American  towns,  which  owe 
their  birth  to  war ;  it  was  at  first  one  of  the  chain  of 
French  forts,  and  was  afterward  occupied  by  the  English 
as  a  frontier  post  against  the  savages.  In  1781,  Pittsburg 
consisted  of  a  few  houses  under  the  protection  of  the  can- 
non of  Fort  Pitt.  The  origin  of  Cincinnati  was  similar ; 
both  commenced  with  a  fortress,  but  more  fortunate  than 
some  of  our  great  commercial  towns,  such  as  Havre, 
which  is  stifled  in  the  embrace  of  its  fortifications,  Pitts- 
burg and  Cincinnati  have  caused  all  traces  of  their  original 
destination  to  disappear.  Of  Fort  Pitt,  which  the  Eng- 
lish constructed  just  above  the  site  of  Fort  Duquesne,  noth- 
ing remains  but  a  small  magazine  which  has  been  con- 
verted into  a  dwelling  house  ;  another  trace  of  the  martial 
epoch  (which  here  forms  the  mythological  ages),  is  the 
name  of  Redoubt  Alley,  which  is  taken  from  a  battery 
once  erected  there,  to  sweep  the  Monongahela.  At  Cin- 
cinnati, Fort  Washington  has  been  razed,  and  on  its  site 
now  stands  a  bazaar  built  by  Mrs  Trollope.  Not  one  of 
the  least  singular  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  Amer- 
ica within  a  half  century,  is  the  difference  between  the 
old  mode  of  founding  a  town,  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  at  present  made  to  rise  out  of  the  ground. 

Some  weeks  ago  I  visited  the  anthracite  coal  district  in 
Pennsylvania  (see  Note  18);  the  Anthracite,  the  most 
convenient  kind  of  fuel,  is  at  present  in  general  use  all 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Washington  to  Boston,  and 
its  introduction  has  made  a  revolution  in  household  matters. 
Six  or  seven  years  since,  when  the  demand  for  it  was  sud- 
denly very  much  increased,  the  district  which  contains 
the  coal-beds  became  the  subject  of  speculation,  at  first 
prudently  conducted,  but  finally  growing  wild  and  extrava- 


PITTSBURG.  173 

gant.  The  speculators  vied  with  each  other  in  tracing  out 
town-plots  ;  I  have  seen  detailed  plans,  with  straight  streets 
and  fine  public  squares  scrupulously,  reserved,  of  cities 
which  do  not  actually  consist  of  a  single  street,  of  towns 
which  hardly  contain  three  houses.  This  frenzy  gave 
birth,  however,  to  one  town  of  3,000  inhabitants,  Potts- 
ville,  to  ten  or  twelve  railroads,  great  and  small,  to  several 
canals,  basins,  and  mining  explorations,  that  have  proved 
pretty  successful.  As  for  the  great  cities,  several  of  them 
have  really  become  flourishing  villages,  although  the 
dreams  of  their  founders  have  not  proved  true. 

In  this  anthracite  region,  in  the  manufacturing  districts 
of  the  North  East,  along  the  New  York  canals,  and  in  all 
parts  of  the  West,  a  traveller  often  has  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  the  process  of  building  towns.  First  rises  a  huge 
hotel  with  a  wooden  colonnade,  a  real  barrack,  in  which 
all  the  movements,  rising,  breakfasting,  dining,  and  sup- 
ping, are  regulated  by  the  sound  of  a  bell  with  military 
precision,  uniformity,  and  rapidity,  the  landlord  being,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  a  general  or,  at  least,  a  colonel  of  the 
militia.  The  bar-room  is  at  once  the  exchange,  where 
hundreds  of  bargains  are  made  under  the  influence  of  a 
glass  of  whiskey  or  gin,  and  the  club-room,  which  resounds 
with  political  debate,  and  is  the  theatre  of  preparations  for 
civil  and  military  elections.  At  about  the  same  time  a 
post-office  is  established  ;  at  first  the  landlord  commonly 
exercising  the  functions  of  postmaster.  As  soon  as  there 
are  any  dwelling-houses  built,  a  church  or  meeting-house 
is  erected  at  the  charge  of  the  rising  community ;  then 
follow  a  school-house  and  a  printing  press  with  a  news- 
paper, and  soon  after  appears  a  bank,  to  complete  the  three- 
fold representation  of  religion,  learning,  and  industry. 

A  European  of  continental  Europe,  in  whose  mind  the 
existence  of  a  bank  is  intimately  associated  with  that  of  a 
great  capital,  is  very  much  surprised  even  for  the  hundredth 


174  LETTER  XV. 

time,  at  finding  one  of  these  institutions  in  spots  yet  in 
an  intermediate  state  between  a  village  and  the  primitive 
forest  inhabited  by  bears  and  rattle-snakes.  On  the  banks 
of  the  Schuylkill,  which  has  lately  been  canalled,  and 
which,  flowing  from  the  coal-region,  empties  itself  into 
the  Delaware  near  Philadelphia,  may  be  seen  the  begin- 
nings of  a  town,  built  during  the  time  of  the  mining  specu- 
lations, at  the  head  of  navigation.  Port  Carbon,  for  that 
is  its  name,  consists  of  about  thirty  houses  standing  on 
the  declivity  of  a  valley,  and  disposed  according  to  the 
plan  of  the  embryo  city.  Such  was  the  haste  in  which 
the  houses  were  built,  that  there  was  no  time  to  remove 
the  stumps  of  the  trees  that  covered  the  spot ;  the  standing 
trees  were  partially  burnt  and  then  felled  with  the  axe, 
and  their  long,  charred  trunks  still  cumber  the  ground. 
Some  of  them  have  been  converted  into  piles  for  support- 
ing the  railroads  that  bring  down  the  coal  to  the  boats  ; 
the  blackened  stumps,  four  or  five  feet  high,  are  still  stand- 
ing, and  you  make  your  way  from  one  house  to  another 
by  leaping  over  the  prostrate  trunks  and  winding  round 
the  standing  stumps.  In  the  midst  of  this  strange  scene, 
appears  a  large  building  with  the  words,  OFFICE  OF  DE- 
POSIT AND  DISCOUNT.  SCHUYLKtLL  BANK.  The 
existence  of  a  bank  amidst  the  stumps  of  Port  Carbon, 
surprised  me  as  much  as  the  universal  neatness  and  ele- 
gance of  the  peaceful  Philadelphia,  or  the  vast  fleet  which 
is  constantly  receiving  and  discharging  at  the  quays  of 
New  York,  the  products  of  all  parts  of  the  world. 

I  return  to  the  triple  emblem  of  the  church,  the  school 
with  the  printing-press,  and  the  bank.  A  society  which 
is  formed  by  accretion  around  such  a  nucleus,  must  differ 
more  and  more  from  the  present  European  society,  which 
was  formed  chiefly  under  the  auspices  of  war,  and  by  a 
succession  of  conquests,  following  one  upon  another. 
American  society,  taking  for  its  point  of  departure  labour. 


PITTSHURG.  175 

based  upon  a  condition  of  general  ease  on  one  side,  and  on 
a  system  of  common  elementary  education  on  the  other, 
and  moving  forward  with  the  religious  principle  for  its 
lode-star,  seems  destined  to  reach  a  degree  of  prosperity, 
power,  and  happiness,  much  superior  to  what  we  have 
attained  with  our  semi-feudal  organisation,  and  our  fixed 
antipathy  against  all  moral  rule  and  all  authority.  It  pre- 
sents, doubtless,  especially  in  the  newer  States,  many  im- 
perfecjions,  and  it  will  have  to  submit  to  various  modifica- 
tions ;  this  is  the  lot  of  all  unfinished  works,  even  when 
God  himself  is  the  maker.  But  a  few  errors  and  follies 
are  of  little  import  in  the  eyes  of  those  whose  thoughts 
are  occupied  with  the  great  interests  of  the  future  rather 
than  with  the  paltry  troubles  of  the  present  hour.  Of 
little  moment  are  the  disgust  and  disappointment  that 
a  European  of  delicate  nerves  may  have  to  encounter, 
if,  for  the  purpose  of  killing  time,  he  ventures  upon  a 
western  steamboat,  or  into  a  western  tavern ;  so  much  the 
worse  for  him,  if  he  has  fallen  into  a  country  where  there 
is  no  place  for  an  idle  tourist,  seeking  only  for  amusement ! 
Let  the  foreigner  smile  at  the  simplicity  and  extravagance 
of  national  vanity.  That  patriotic  pride,  rendered  excu- 
sable by  brilliant  success,  will  be  moderated ;  the  errors 
and  the  follies  are  daily  correcting  themselves ;  the  una- 
voidable rudeness  of  the  backwoodsman  will  be  softened, 
as  soon  as  there  are  no  more  forests  to  fell,  no  more  swamps 
to  drain,  no  more  wild  beasts  to  destroy.  The  evil  will 
pass  away,  and  is  passing  away ;  the  good  remains  and 
grows  and  spreads,  like  a  grain  of  mustard. 


176  LETTER  XVI. 

LETTER  XVI. 

GENERAL      JACKSON. 

LOUISVILLE,  (Kv.),  DECEMBER  15,  1834. 

You  must  have  been  astonished  in  France  at  the  Presi- 
dent's Message ;  here  the  sharp  and  reckless  tone  of  a 
portion  of  the  press  had  prepared  the  public  mind  for  some 
energetic  demonstration ;  but  the  Message  has  exceeded 
the  hopes  of  those  who  wished  to  assume  an  attitude  of 
defiance  in  regard  to  France,  and  the  fears  of  those  who 
dreaded  some  imprudent  step.  Had  such  a  paper  come 
from  any  former  President, — from  Washington  to  John 
duincy  Adams, — it  would  have  been  looked  upon  as  an 
expression  of  the  sentiments  of  a  majority  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  Neither  of  them  would  have  been  willing 
thus  to  commit  the  United  States,  without  being  sure  that 
the  national  will  really  required  it.  Their  rule  of  action 
would  have  been  to  let  themselves  be  pushed  on  by  the 
nation,  rather  than  to  draw  it  after  them,  or  to  go  beyond 
it ;  and  this,  in  fact,  is  more  conformable  to  notions  of  self- 
government.  They  would  have  had  the  question  profoundly 
discussed  by  the  cabinet,  not  only  orally,  but  in  writing, 
as  Washington  did  at  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the 
first  bank  in  1791.  They  would  have  consulted  indivi- 
dually some  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  country  of 
all  parties  and  all  interests.  They  would  have  listened 
patiently  to  the  representations  of  those  upon  whom  the 
heavy  burden  of  war  would  have  most  directly  fallen,  the 
merchants  of  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Charleston,  New  Orleans,  and  other  large  ports ;  and  final- 
ly, after  having  weighed  all  objections,  measured  all  diffi- 
culties, if  they  had  been  convinced  that  the  interest  and 


GENERAL  JACKSON.  177 

honour  of  their  country  absolutely  required  the  appeal 
to  the  last  argument,  they  would  have  reluctantly  ad- 
dressed the  challenge  to  their  oldest  ally  and  friend, 
to  the  firmest  stay  of  liberty  and  improvement  in  the 
Old  World. 

General  Jackson  has  changed  all  this  ;  the  rules  of  con- 
duct and  the  policy  of  his  administration  are  no  longer 
those  adopted  by  the  wisdom  of  his  predecessors.  Some 
may  maintain  that  this  change  is  for  the  better  ;  on  this 
point,  the  future,  and  no  distant  future,  will  decide ;  but 
the  fact  of  a  change  is  undeniable.  General  Jackson  pos- 
sesses in  the  highest  degree  the  qualities  necessary  for  con- 
ducting a  partisan  warfare.  Bold,  indefatigable,  vigilant, 
quick-sighted,  with  an  iron  will  and  a  frame  of  adamant, 
devoted  to  his  friends,  harsh  and  terrible  to  his  enemies, 
making  light  of  obstacles,  passionately  fond  of  danger, 
his  campaigns  against  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles  were 
marked  by  the  most  brilliant  success,  and  his  resistance  to 
the  English  army  under  Packenham,  at  New  Orleans,  was 
heroic.  By  these  exploits  and  the  enthusiasm  which  mili- 
tary services  excite  in  all  countries,  General  Jackson  found 
himself  the  most  popular  man  in  the  Union,  when  the 
founders  of  the  national  independence  disappeared,  and 
naturally  became  the  candidate  for  the  presidential  chair. 
Objections  were  made  to  his  unbending  temper,  the  impa- 
tience of  contradiction  which  he  had  shown  throughout 
his  whole  career,  his  obstinacy  in  following  his  own  im- 
pulses, in  spite  of  the  provisions  of  the  laws,  and  his  dis- 
position to  use  the  sword  of  Alexander,  rather  than  to  con- 
form himself  to  the  delays  of  constitutional  forms.  His 
natural  propensities,  strengthened  by  the  habits  of  military 
command,  and  by  the  peculiarities  of  that  kind  of  warfare 
in  which  he  had  been  engaged,  must,  it  was  urged,  have 
become  ungovernable  ;  and  it  would  be  impossible  for  him 
to  acquire  that  moderation,  which  is  necessary  in  the  ex- 
23 


178  LETTER  XVI. 

ercise  of  civil  authority.  It  was  predicted  that  in  politics, 
as  in  war,  he  would  be  zealous  for  his  friends,  implacable 
towards  his  adversaries,  violent  against  whoever  should 
attempt  to  check  his  course  ;  that,  instead  of  being  above 
party-quarrels,  he  would  come  down  into  the  arena  in  per- 
son. His  arrest  of  a  judge  in  New  Orleans,  the  execution 
of  the  militia  men.  and  of  the  two  Englishmen,  Arbuthnot 
and  Ambristier,  his  invasion  and  conquest  of  Florida  in 
time  of  peace,  his  anger  and  threats  when  Congress  was 
deliberating  upon  charges  founded  on  these  summary  acts, 
were  all  dwelt  upon. 

But  his  chivalric  character,  his  lofty  integrity,  and  ar- 
dent patriotism,  seemed  sufficient  guarantees  for  his  con- 
duct, and  from  reasons  of  domestic  policy,  which  it  would 
take  too  much  time  to  explain,  many  enlightened  men, 
who  had  at  first  treated  the  idea  of  supporting  him  for  the 
presidency  with  ridicule,  gave  into  the  plan,  trusting  that 
they  should  be  able  to  exercise  a  salutary  influence  over 
him.  His  fiery  temper  seemed  in  fact  to  be  calmed  by 
his  elevation  ;  the  recollection  of  his  professions,  which, 
at  the  moment  they  were  made,  were  made  in  good  faith, 
was  yet  fresh  ;  he  had  conscientiously  resolved  to  observe 
the  principles  consecrated  by  Washington,  Jefferson,  and 
and  the  other  patriarchs  of  America,  to  keep  himself  scru- 
pulously within  the  narrow  limits  of  prerogative,  as  he 
had  traced  them  or  allowed  them  to  be  traced  out  for  him ; 
to  follow  the  current  of  public  opinion,  without  seeking  to 
bar  its  course  or  divert  it  from  its  regular  channels ;  to  be 
moderate,  patient,  and  calm.  During  his  first  term,  he 
continued  pretty  faithful  to  his  resolution,  to  his  professed 
principles,  and  to  the  advice  of  those  who  raised  him  to 
his  seat.  But  this  state  of  constraint  was  insupportable  to 
him  ;  it  is  too  late  to  reform  at  the  age  of  sixty  years. 

Besides,  it  is  not  all '  temperaments,  or,  I  should  rather 
say,  the  distinctive  qualities  of  all  men,  that  can  adapt 


GENERAL  JACKSON.  179 

themselves  to  that  high  sphere  of  serenity,  in  which  he 
who  governs  others  should  move.  Such  a  conformity  was 
even  more  difficult  for  General  Jackson  than  for  any  other 
man  ;  the  turbulence  and  impetuosity  of  youth  had  not 
been  tempered  in  him  either  by  age  or  by  the  fatigues  of 
war.  And  in  a  country  where  universal  suffrage  prevails, 
political  disputes  are  of  a  character  to  exhaust  the  patience 
of  an  angel.  Step  by  step,  then,  the  stormy  propensities 
of  the  Tennessee  planter  were  seen  returning.  The 
character  of  the  bold,  daring,  restless,  obstinate,  fiery,  in- 
domitable partisan  chief,  of  the  conqueror  of  the  Creeks 
and  Seminoles,  gradually  broke  through  the  veil  of  re- 
serve, caution,  gravity,  and  universal  good- will  which  had 
covered  it,  and  tore  in  pieces  the  constitutional  mantle 
in  which  his  friends  had  taken  so  much  pains  to  wrap 
him. 

At  length,  in  1832,  South  Carolina  furnished  a  natural 
occasion  for  giving  the  rein  to  his  warlike  propensities, 
which  had  now  been  curbed  for  four  years.  That  State  had, 
on  its  own  individual  authority,  declared  the  tariff  act  of 
Congress  null  and  void,  and  had  armed  its  militia  to  sustain 
its  nullification  Ordinance.  The  President  immediately 
began  preparations  for  war,  retaining,  however,  the  lan- 
guage of  moderation,  and  obtained  an  act  of  Congress 
(the  Force  Bill)  authorising  him  to  employ  all  means  to 
maintain  the  laws  of  the  United  States  ;  when  this  storm 
was  laid  (see  Note  5),  General  Jackson  was  proclaimed 
the  saviour  of  the  Constitution  ;  and  perhaps  sufficient 
care  was  not  taken  to  prevent  a  very  natural  mistake  of  an 
old  soldier,  and  to  make  him  sensible  that  the  congratula- 
tions of  a  grateful  people  were  addressed  less  to  his  war- 
like attitude,  than  to  the  pacific  measures  taken  under  his 
auspices.  In  the  heat  of  debate  and  the  shout  of  acclama- 
tion that  followed  the  restoration  of  order,  the  old  military 
leaven  began  to  ferment  in  the  President's  heart,  and 


180  LETTER  XVI. 

without  a  pause,  he  rushed  into  a  vigourous  campaign 
against  the  Bank.  This  was  a  war  almost  without  provo- 
cation, certainly  without  a  just  cause,  and  for  some  time  it 
appeared  that  the  General  would  be  worsted.  But  he 
held  his  own,  and  neither  bent  nor  broke.  In  this  affair 
he  was  the  same  OLD  HICKORY  that  the  Indians  had  found 
always  and  everywhere  on  their  trail,  whom  they  could 
neither  tire  nor  surprise,  and  upon  whom  they  could  get 
no  hold,  either  by  force  or  fraud.  The  last  elections  of 
Representatives  assure  him  the  victory,  and  the  Bank  is 
condemned  to  the  fate  of  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles,  of 
Mr  Clay  and  Mr  Calhoun,  of  the  Spanish  government  of 
Florida,  and  of  the  English  General  Packenham  (see 
Note  19.) 

The  intoxication  of  success  seems  to  have  restored  all 
the  fire  of  his  youth,  and  at  an  age  when  other  men  look 
only  towards  repose,  he  requires  new  perils  and  new 
fatigues.  Last  winter,  Mr  Clay  declared  in  the  Senate, 
that,  if  phrenology  were  a  true  science,  President  Jackson 
must  certainly  have  the  bump  of  combativeness,  for  his 
life  had  been  nothing  but  the  perpetual  exercise  of  that 
appetite ;"  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  against  the  English, 
then  against  his  neighbours  the  first  settlers  of  Tennessee, 
not  a  very  tractable  race,  and  who  handled  the  knife,  the 
sword,  the  pistol,  and  the  rifle,  with  as  much  promptness 
as  himself;  next  against  the  Indians,  the  English,  the 
Indians  again,  and  the  inoffensive  Spaniards  ;  then  against 
Mr  Clay,  Mr  Calhoun,  and  South  Carolina,  and  finally,  for 
want  of  other  adversaries,  he  was  engaged  in  a  bout  with 
the  Bank.  The  General  seems,  in  fact,  to  be  possessed 
with  the  demon  of  war ;  for  no  sooner  had  he  put  his  foot 
on  the  throat  of  the  Bank,  than  he  required  a  new  enemy, 
.and  finding  in  America  none  but  vanquished  adversaries, 
or  objects  unworthy  of  his  anger,  he  flings  down  the  glove 
to  France.  Thus  far  the  defiance  thrown  out  to  France 


GENERAL  JACKSON.  181 

is  merely  the  expression  of  General  Jackson's  humour. 
But,  unluckily,  this  act  of  an  individual  emanates  from  a 
man  who  is  President  of  the  United  States  until  the  4th 
of  March,  1837,  and  who  is  even  more  pertinacious  in  his 
enmities  than  in  his  friendships.  Unluckily  too,  the  defi- 
ance has  been  inserted  in  a  solemn  document,  which  is 
looked  upon  in  Europe  as  the  faithful  exhibition  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  American  people.  And  finally,  the 
man  who  has  set  the  United  States  in  this  posture,  has 
just  made  an  experiment  which  shows  the  degree  to  which 
he  can  lead  the  people  to  espouse  his  personal  quarrels. 

His  tactics  in  politics,  as  well  as  in  war,  is  to  throw 
himself  forward  with  the  cry  of,  comrades,  follow  me! 
and  this  bold  stroke  has  succeeded  admirably  in  the  case 
of  the  Bank.  If  he  had  recommended  to  Congress  to 
withdraw  the  public  deposites  from  that  institution,  he 
would  certainly  have  failed;  Congress  would  have  de- 
clared against  it.  He,  therefore,  boldly  took  the  first  step 
himself,  and  ordered  the  removal,  in  opposition  to  the  advice 
of  the  majority  of  his  cabinet,  two  months  before  the 
meeting  of  Congress,  without  the  slightest  possible  pre- 
tence of  the  urgency  of  the  measure.  /  will  take  the 
responsibility,  he  said.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
refused  to  execute  the  order,  because  he  considered  it  a 
fatal  abuse  of  power,  and  he  was  dismissed.  The  majority 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  in  the  last  elections, 
of  the  people,  have  sanctioned  those  dictatorial  acts.  Gen- 
eral Jackson  has,  indeed,  lost  most  of  his  friends  in  the 
enlightened  classes  and  among  the  merchants,  but  he  cares 
little  for  individuals,  however  distinguished ;  by  virtue  of 
universal  suffrage,  it  is  numbers  that  rule  here. 

Will  the  bold  policy  by  which  he  carried  the  multitude 
against  the  Bank,  be  as  successful  now  that  he  attempts  to 
edge  them  on  against  France  ?  It  may  be  compared  to 


182  LETTER  XVI. 

one  of  those  feats  of  strength,  in  which  one  may  succeed 
the  first  and  even  the  second  time,  but  will  break  his 
back  the  third.  General  Jackson  may  be  considered  to 
possess  that  sort  of  popularity  which  is  irresistible  for  a 
short  time  ;  but  the  duration  and  solidity  of  which  are  in 
the  inverse  ratio  of  its  intensity  and  brilliancy  ;  this, 
however,  is  a  mere  conjecture.  One  thing  is  certain,  that 
the  General  has  the  majority  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  from  what  is  known  of  the  composition  of  the 
next  Congress,  there  is  every  appearance  that  he  will  keep 
it  during  the  term  of  his  Presidency ;  whilst  the  Opposi- 
tion, which  now  has  the  majority  in  the  Senate,  may  lose 
it  after  the  present  session.  Besides,  it  is  not  plain  to  me, 
that  the  Opposition  will  be  unanimous  in  censuring  the 
measures  of  General  Jackson  in  regard  to  France.  The 
opponents  of  General  Jackson,  as  well  as  his  friends,  are 
obliged  to  court  their  common  sovereign,  the  people. 
Now  in  all  countries  the  multitude  are  very  far  from  being 
cosmopolites ;  their  patriotism  is  more  lively  and  warm, 
but  it  is  also  more  brutal,  more  unjust,  and  more  arrogant, 
than  that  of  the  higher  classes.  In  France,  they  cry  with 
enthusiasm,  Our  country  before  all  things!  Here  the 
word  is,  Our  country,  right  or  wrong  I  which  is  the  per- 
fection of  national  selfishness. 

As  General  Jackson  is  not,  however,  a  madman  or  a 
fool,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine,  that  he  wishes  the  United 
States  to  pass  at  once  from  a  close  friendship  to  a  state  of 
hostility  with  France.  If  he  thinks  that  France  has 
exceeded  all  reasonable  bounds  of  delay,  that  she  has  ex- 
hausted all  the  patience  she  had  a  right  to  expect  from  an 
old  ally,  from  a  nation  whose  independence  was  bought 
with  our  blood  and  our  treasure,  why  is  he  not  content 
with  proposing  measures  of  commercial  restriction  ?  A 
duty  upon  our  goods  would  also  be  a  means  of  paying  the 


GENERAL  JACKSON.  183 

twentyfive  millions.  He  knows,  that,  if  France  has  more 
to  lose  than  the  United  States  in  a  war  of  tariffs,  the 
United  States,  whose  commerce  and  navigation  are  miich 
more  extensive  than  ours,  have  more  to  lose  in  a  war 
of  cannon,  of  which  the  sea  would  naturally  be  the 
theatre.  But  which  class  in  the  United  States  will  suffer 
most  by  a  war  ?  The  commercial,  certainly.  Who  own 
the  vessels  and  the  goods  ?  Oh  !  the  merchants  and  ship- 
owners who  vote  against  the  General  and  his  friends,  his 
adversaries  whom  he  detests  and  despises  ;  the  traders  of 
Boston,  who  beheaded  his  statue  on  the  bows  of  the  Con- 
stitution frigate  ;  those  of  New  York,  who  have  had  cari- 
cature medals  struck  at  Birmingham,  holding  up  his  gov- 
ernment to  hatred  and  contempt ;  the  capitalists  of  Phila- 
delphia, friends  of  Mr  Biddle  and  admirers  of  Mr  Clay. 
General  Jackson  troubles  himself  very  little  about  the 
interest  of  such  fellows  as  these. 

On  the  contrary,  an  increase  of  the  customs  duties, 
whatever  should  be  the  motive  of  it,  would  be  particularly 
hurtful  to  the  Southern  States,  and  would  be  very  unwel- 
come to  them.  As  it  is  the  South  that  produces  cotton, 
the  principal  article  of  export  from  the  United  States  to 
France;  the  reprisals  which  the  French  government  would 
not  fail  to  make,  would  fall  chiefly  upon  the  South.  Now 
the  democratic  party  at  present  needs  the  support  of  the 
South,  and  is  courting  Virginia  in  particular,  the  most  in- 
fluential of  the  Southern  States.  The  success  of  the 
plans  of  the  democratic  party,  that  is  to  say,  the  election 
of  Mr  Van  Buren  to  the  presidency,  depends  much  upon 
the  attitude  taken  by  Virginia,  not  in  1836,  the  year  of 
the  election,  but  the  present  year,  not  tomorrow  but  to-day. 
Public  opinion  is  yet  undecided  in  Virginia ;  it  is  desirable, 
at  any  price,  to  prevent  it  from  leaning  in  any  degree  to 
the  side  of  the  Opposition,  and  it  is  well  understood  that 


184  LETTER  XVI. 

Virginia  will  not  consent  to  laying  any  especial  burdens 
on  the  South.  The  Virginia  legislature  is  now  in  session, 
and  one  of  its  first  acts  will  be  the  choice  of  a  Senator  in 
Congress.  If  Mr  Leigh,  the  present  Senator,  is  chosen, 
then  it  will  be  committed  in  favour  of  the  Opposition, 
and  perhaps  lost  to  the  democratic  party.  The  loss  of  the 
legislature  may  involve  that  of  the  State  ;  the  loss  of 
Virginia  may  involve  that  of  the  South.  Considerations 
of  this  kind  have  much  more  weight  here  than  would  be 
imagined  in  Europe.  In  the  midst  of  the  changing  insti- 
stitutions  of  this  country,  politicians  live  only  from  hand 
to  mouth. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  European  governments  are 
clogged  in  their  foreign  policy  by  domestic  difficulties. 
General  Jackson  would  have  been  more  cautious,  if  he 
had  not  thought  that  such  is  the  position  of  the  French 
government  at  this  moment.  But  be  assured,  that  he 
also  has  his  domestic  embarrassments,  which  affect  his 
measures.  This  is  more  peculiarly  the  case  with  him 
than  with  any  other  President,  because  he  is  more  a  man 
of  party,  more  entangled  in  party  meshes,  than  any  of  his 
predecessors.  Congressional  intrigues  and  sectional  in- 
terests create  the  same  difficulties  here,  particularly  for  an 
administration  like  his,  which  amongst  us  result  from  an 
ill-balanced  population,  and  the  burden  of  the  past.  The 
French  government  may  be  confident  of  this,  and  ought 
to  act  conformably. 


PUBLIC  OPINION. 


LETTER  XVII. 
PUBLIC    OPINION. 

LOUISVILLE,  DECEMBER  22,  1834. 

THE  first  impression  produced  in  the  United  States  by 
General  Jackson's  Message,  was  astonishment,  as  the  tone 
was  wholly  unexpected  to  every  one.  In  Europe,  I  sup- 
pose that  it  will  have  excited  more  than  surprise,  and  it 
will  be  a  matter  of  wonder,  how  a  measure  so  rash  and 
reckless  could  have  emanated  from  a  government,  which, 
from  its  origin,  has  been  characterised  by  address  and  pru- 
dence. I  have  already  attempted  to  give  an  explanation 
of  this  mystery,  and  I  have  stated,  that  this  quasi  declara- 
tion of  war  was  altogether  an  individual  affair  of  General 
Jackson,  that  in  this,  as  in  every  thing  else,  he  has  acted 
from  his  own  impulse.  The  enlightened  statesmen,  who 
surrounded  him  in  the  beginning  of  his  government,  and 
whose  wise  counsels  repressed  his  ardour,  no  longer  have 
any  influence.  One  after  another  has  been  separated  from 
him,  and  several,  such  as  Mr  Calhoun,  who,  during  his 
first  term,  was  Vice-President,  are  now  become  his  irre- 
concileable  enemies.  His  position,  as  the  head  of  the 
democratic  party,  obliges  him,  therefore,  to  supply  some 
fuel  for  the  furious  passions,  which  the  late  contests  had 
kindled. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  judge  of  the  reception  of  a 
document  of  this  character  in  this  country,  by  what  would 
take  place  under  similar  circumstances  in  Europe.  Public 
opinion  has  not  the  same  arbiters  here  as  in  European 
societies ;  what  is  called  public  opinion  in  Europe,  is  the 
generally  current  opinion  among  the  middling  and  higher 
classes,  that  of  the  merchants,  manufacturers,  men  of  let- 
24 


186  LETTER  XVII. 

ters,  and  statesmen,  of  those  who,  having  inherited  a  com- 
petency, devote  their  time  to  study,  the  fine  arts,  and,  un- 
fortunately too  often,  to  idleness.  These  are  the  persons, 
who  govern  public  opinion  in  Europe,  who  have  seats  in 
the  chambers,  fill  public  offices,  and  manage  or  direct  the 
most  powerful  organs  of  the  press.  They  are  the  polite 
and  cultivated,  who  are  accustomed  to  self-control,  more 
inclined  to  scepticism  than  fanaticism,  and  on  their  guard 
against  the  impulses  of  enthusiasm  ;  to  whose  feelings  all 
violence  is  repugnant,  all  rudeness  and  all  brutality  offen- 
sive ;  who  cherish  moderation  often  even  to  excess,  and 
prefer  compromises  and  half-measures.  Among  persons  like 
these,  General  Jackson's  message  would  have  met  with 
universal  condemnation,  or  rather  if  General  Jackson  had 
derived  his  ideas  from  such  a  medium,  he  would  never 
have  dictated  such  a  message. 

The  minority,  which  in  Europe  decides  public  opinion, 
and  by  this  means  is  sovereign,  is  here  deposed,  and 
having  been  successively  driven  from  post  to  post,  has 
come  to  influence  opinion  only  in  a  few  saloons  in  the 
large  cities,  and  to  be  itself  under  as  strict  guardianship  as 
minors,  women,  and  idiots.  Until  the  accession  of  General 
Jackson,  it  had,  however,  exercised  some  influence  over 
all  the  Presidents,  who  were  generally  scholars,  and  all  of 
whom,  aside  from  their  party  connections,  were  attached 
to  it  by  family  and  social  relations,  and  by  their  habits  of 
life.  Up  to  the  present  time,  this  class  had  also  preserved 
some  influence  over  the  two  houses ;  but  it  has  now  com- 
pletely broken  with  the  President,  or  rather  the  President 
has  broken  with  it ;  it  has  no  longer  any  credit,  except 
with  one  of  the  Houses,  because  the  Senate  still  consists 
of  men  whom  it  may  claim  as  belonging  to  it  by  their 
superior  intelligence,  education,  and  property.  The  dem- 
ocracy does  not  fail,  therefore,  to  stigmatise  the  Senate  as 
an  aristocratic  body,  and  to  call  it  the  House  of  Lords. 


PUBLIC  OPINION.  187 

j    ^ 

The  mass,  which  in  Europe  bears  the  pack  and  receives 
the  law,  has  here  put  the  pack  on  the  back  of  the  enlight- 
ened and  cultivated  class,  which  among  us  on  the  other 
hand,  has  the  upper  hand.  The  farmer  and  the  mechanic 
are  the  lords  of  the  New  World  ;  public  opinion  is  their 
opinion ;  the  public  will  is  their  will ;  the  President  is 
their  choice,  their  agent,  their  servant.  If  it  is  true  that 
the  depositaries  of  power  in  Europe  have  been  too  much 
disposed  to  use  it  in  promoting  their  own  interests,  with- 
out consulting  the  wishes  and  the  welfare  of  the  mass 
beneath  them,  it  is  no  less  true  that  the  classes  which 
wield  the  sceptre  in  America  are  equally  tainted  with  sel- 
fishness, and  that  they  take  less  pains  to  diguise.  it.  In  a 
word,  North  America  is  Europe  with  its  head  down  and 
its  feet  up.  European  society,  in  London  and  Paris  as 
well  as  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  the  Swiss  republic  as  well  as 
in  the  Austrian  empire,  is  aristocratical  in  this  sense, 
that,  even  after  all  the  great  changes  of  the  last  fifty  years, 
it  is  still  founded  more  or  less  absolutely  on  the  principle 
of  inequality  or  a  difference  of  ranks.  American  society 
is  essentially  and  radically  a  democracy,  not  in  name 
merely  but  in  deed.  In  the  United  States  the  democratic 
spirit  is  infused  into  all  the  national  habits,  and  all  the  cus- 
toms of  society ;  it  besets  and  startles  at  every  step  the 
foreigner,  who,  before  landing  in  the  country,  had  no  sus- 
picion to  what  a  degree  every  nerve  and  fibre  had  been 
steeped  in  aristocracy  by  a  European  education.  It  has 
effaced  all  distinctions,  except  that  of  colour ;  for  here  a 
shade  in  the  hue  of  the  skin  separates  men  more  widely 
than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  pervades 
all  places,  one  only  excepted,  and  that  the  very  one 
which  in  Catholic  Europe  is  consecrated  to  equality, 
the  church ;  here  all  whites  are  equal,  every  where, 
except  in  the  presence  of  Him,  in  whose  eyes,  the 


188  LETTER  XVII. 

distinctions  of  this  world  are  vanity  and  nothingness.* 
Strange  inconsistency !  Or  rather  solemn  protest,  attesting 
that  the  principle  of  rank  is  firmly  seated  in  the  human 
heart  by  the  side  of  the  principle  of  equality,  that  it  must 
have  its  place  in  all  countries  and  under  all  circum- 
stances ! 

Democracy  everywhere  has  no  soft  words,  no  supple- 
ness of  forms ;  it  has  little  address,  little  of  management ;  it 
is  apt  to  confound  moderation  with  weakness,  violence 
with  heroism.  Little  used  to  self-control,  it  gives  itself 
unreservedly  to  its  friends,  and  sets  them  up  as  idols  to 
whom  it  burns  incense  ;  it  utters  its  indignation  and  its 
suspicions  against  those  of  whom  it  thinks  that  it  has 
cause  for  complaint,  rudely,  and  in  a  tone  of  anger  and 
menace.  It  is  intolerant  towards  foreign  nations;  the 
American  democracy  in  particular,  bred  up  in  the  belief 
that  the  nations  of  Europe  groan  ignobly  under  the  yoke  of 
absolute  despots,  looks  upon  them  with  a  mixture  of  pity  and 
contempt.  When  it  throws  a  glance  beyond  the  Atlantic, 
it  aifects  the  superior  air  of  a  freeman  looking  upon  a  herd 
of  slaves.  Its  pride  kindles  at  the  idea  of  humbling  the 

*  In  Roman  Catholic  countries,  the  churches,  vast  structures,  are  open  to 
all  without  distinction  ;  each  takes  his  seat  where  he  pleases  ;  all  ranks  are 
confounded.  In  the  United  States  the  churches  are  very  numerous  and 
very  small,  being  built  by  joint-stock  companies.  They  are  appropriated  to 
the  exclusive  use  of  the  proprietors,  with  the  exception  of  one  free-seat  for 
the  poor,  each  one's  share  of  property  being  designated  by  an  enclosed 
space  or  a  pew.  The  whole  floor  of  the  church  is  thus  occupied  by  pews, 
and  the  gallery  is  generally  divided  in  the  same  manner,  though  a  part  of  the 
latter  is  generally  open  and  free  to  all.  Each  pew  is  sold  and  transferred 
like  any  other  property  ;  the  price  varies  according  to  the  town,  the  sect,  or 
the  situation.  The  proprietors  pay  an  annual  tax  for  the  support  of  public 
worship,  lighting,  and  warming  the  church,  and  the  minister's  salary,  the 
amount  of  the  tax  being  proportioned  to  the  value  of  the  pew.  Sometimes 
the  church  itself  owns  the  pews,  and  the  rent  covers  the  expenses  of  the 
public  worship.  According  to  this  system,  the  place  occupied  by  the  wor- 
shippers depends  on  their  wealth,  or,  at  least,  on  the  price  they  are  able  or 
willing  to  pay  for  their  pews. 


PUBLIC  OPINION.  189 

monarchical  principle  in  the  person  of  the  "  tyrants  who 
tread  Europe  under  foot." 

It  may,  then,  be  expected,  that  public  opinion  here  will 
approve  the  Message,  both  as  to  its  manner  and  matter, 
that  it  will  consider  it  full  of  moderation  and  propriety. 
It  is  probable,  that  most  of  the  men  and  the  journals  of 
the  Opposition  will  fear  to  censure  it  openly  and  boldly. 
Not  that  the  Jackson  men  themselves  are  unanimous  in  its 
favour ;  but  that  the  speakers  and  writers  of  the  Oppo- 
sition consider  themselves  and  are,  bound  to  pay  hom- 
age to  the  sovereign  people,   that  they  are  all    obliged 
to   court   the   multitude,   which   is    not  very   managea- 
ble in  regard  to  points  of  national  dignity  and  vanity. 
A  certain  number  of  journals  and  of  political  men  have 
expressed  their  views  as   to  the  occasion  and  the  con- 
sequences of   a  declaration  of  war  with   independence, 
and  have  been  able  to  reconcile  their  patriotism  with  a 
lofty  courtesy  toward  the  oldest  and  the  most   faithful 
ally  of  America;  but  these  are  exceptions  to  the  general 
rule.     Some  of  the  best  informed  and  most  influential  of 
the  Opposition  journals  have,  to  the  general  astonishment, 
suddenly  turned  right-about-face,  and  welcomed  the  part 
of  the   Message   relative    to    France   with   acclamations. 
Thus  they  appear  more  democratic  than  the  democracy, 
furious  upon  a  point  of  honour,  ready  to  sacrifice  every 
thing  in  order  to  obtain  redress  for  an  outrage,  to  which, 
after  twenty  years,  they  have  now  first  become  sensible. 
He,  who  yesterday  was  a  peaceful  and  reasonable  wri- 
ter, is  to-day  a  thunderbolt  of  war,  can  talk  of  nothing 
but  the  violated  national  dignity,  thinks  only  of  blowing 
up  the  flame.     The  cause  of  this  sudden  change   is  this  ; 
if  the  United  States  were  at  war,  they  would  spend  a 
great  deal  of  money,  and  a  Bank  then  would  be  indispen- 
sable to  the  Federal  government.     Now  a  Bank  and  the 
Bank  is  at  bottom  all  one.     This  is  what  is  called  po- 


190  LETTER  XVIII. 

licy,  cleverness,  but  it  remains  to  be  seen  if  the  demo- 
cratic party  will  be  the  dupe  of  such  arts,  and  if  those 
who  are  most  interested  in  the  existence  of  the  Bank,  that 
is,  the  merchants  of  New  York,  Boston,  and  New  Orleans, 
and  even  those  of  Philadelphia,  wish  to  have  a  Bank  at 
any  price. 

Happily  for  the  peace  of  the  world,  the  majority  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  consists  of  men  eminent  for 
their  experience,  their  ability,  arid  their  patriotism,  who 
judge  the  interests  of  their  country  on  grounds  of  high 
policy,  and  who,  among  other  questions,  will  not  fail  to 
consider  this  ;  whether  it  would  not  be  the  worst  of  all 
means  of  securing  the  liberty  of  the  seas,  an  object  which 
they  have  at  heart,  for  the  French  and  American  navies 
to  destroy  each  other.  They  do  not  hesitate,  when  cir- 
cumstances require  it.  to  take  a  stand  above  the  demands  of 
an  ephemeral  popularity,  and  to  meet  the  difficulties  face 
to  face.  A  handful  of  firm  and  eloquent  men  in  this  illus- 
trious assembly,  was  sufficient  last  winter  to  sustain  the 
shock  of  the  popular  masses,  and  to  check  and  bear  them 
back.  The  Senate  has  only  to  continue  equal  to  itself,  to 
deserve  well  of  its  country  and  of  mankind. 


LETTER  XVIII. 


CINCINNATI 


MEMPHIS,  (TENN.),  JAN.  1,  1835. 

CINCINNATI  has  been  made  famous  by  Mrs  Trollope, 
whose  aristocratic  feelings  were  offended  by  the  pork-trade, 
which  is  here  carried  on  on  a  great  scale.  From  her  accounts 


CINCINNATI.  191 

many  persons  have  thought  that  every  body  in  Cincinnati 
was  a  pork  merchant,  and  the  city  a  mere  slaughter-house. 
The  fact  is  that  Cincinnati  is  a  large  and  beautiful  town, 
charmingly  situated  in  one  of  those  bends  which  the  Ohio 
makes,  as  if  unwilling  to  leave  the  spot.  The  hills  which 
border  the  Belle  Riviere  (Beautiful  River,  the  French 
name  of  the  Ohio)  through  its  whole  course,  seem  here  to 
have  receded  from  the  river  bank,  in  order  to  form  a  lofty 
plain,  to  which  they  serve  as  walls,  whenever  the  Ohio 
does  not  serve  as  a  foss,  and  on  which  man  might 
build  a  town  above  the  reach  of  the  terrible  floods 
of  the  river.  Geologists,  who  have  no  faith  in  the  favours 
of  the  fabled  Oreads,  will  merely  attribute  this  table-land 
to  the  washing  away  of  the  mountains,  in  the  diluvian 
period,  by  the  River  Licking,  now  a  modest  little  stream, 
which,  descending  from  the  highlands  of  Kentucky, 
empties  itself  into  the  Ohio  opposite  Cincinnati.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  there  is  not,  in  the  whole  course  of  the 
river,  a  single  spot  which  offers  such  attractions  to  the 
founders  of  a  town. 

The  architectural  appearance  of  Cincinnati  is  very  near- 
ly the  same  with  that  of  the  new  quarters  of  the  English 
towns.  The  houses  are  generally  of  brick,  most  common- 
ly three  stories  highr  with  the  windows  shining  with 
cleanliness,  calculated  each  for  a  single  family,  and  regu- 
larly placed  along  well  paved  and  spacious  streets,  sixty 
feet  in  width.  Here  and  there  the  prevailing  uniformity  is 
interrupted  by  some  more  imposing  edifice,  and  there  are 
some  houses  of  hewn  stone  in  very  good  taste,  real  palaces 
in  miniature,  with  neat  porticoes,  inhabited  by  the  aris- 
tocratical  portion  of  Mrs  Trollope's  hog-merchants,  and  sev- 
eral very  pretty  mansions  surrounded  with  gardens  and 
terraces.  Then  there  are  the  common  school-houses, 
where  girls  and  boys  together  learn  reading,  writing, 
cyphering,  and  geography,  under  the  simultaneous  direc- 


192  LETTER  XVIII. 

tion  of  a  master  and  mistress.*  In  another  direction  you 
see  a  small,  plain  church,  without  sculpture  or  paintings, 
without  coloured  glass  or  gothic  arches,  but  snug,  well 
carpeted,  and  well-warmed  by  stoves.  In  Cincinnati,  as 
everywhere  else  in  the  United  States,  there  is  a  great  number 
of  churches ;  each  sect  has  its  own,  from  Anglican  Epis- 
copalianism,  which  enlists  under  its  banner  the  wealth  of 
the  country,  to  the  Baptist  and  Methodist  sects,  the  reli- 
gion of  the  labourers  and  negroes.  On  another  side, 
stands  a  huge  hotel,  which  from  its  exterior  you  would 
take  for  a  royal  residence,  but  in  which,  as  I  can  testify, 
you  will  not  experience  a  princely  hospitality  ;  or  a  muse- 
um, which  is  merely  a  private  speculation,  as  all  American 
museums  are,  and  which  consists  of  some  few  crystals, 
some  mammoth-bones,  which  are  very  abundant  in  the 
United  States,  an  Egyptian  mummy,  some  Indian  wea- 
pons and  dresses,  and  a  half-dozen  wax-figures,  represent- 
ing, for  instance,  Washington,  General  Jackson,  and  the 
Indian  Chiefs,  Black  Hawk  and  Tecumseh,  a  figure  of 
Napoleon  afoot  or  on  horseback,  a  French  cuirass  from 
Waterloo,  a  collection  of  portraits  of  distinguished  Ameri- 
cans, comprising  Lafayette  and  some  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  town,  another  of  stuffed  birds,  snakes  preserved  in 
spirits,  and  particularly  a  large  living  snake,  a  boa  con- 
strictor, or  an  anaconda.  One  of  these  museums  in  Cin- 
cinnati is  remarkable  for  its  collection  of  Indian  antiqui- 
ties, derived  from  the  huge  caves  of  Kentucky,  or  from 

*  According  to  the  official  report  of  the  Trustees  and  visitors  of  the  com- 
mon schools,  dated  July  30,  1833,  there  were  then  in  Cincinnati  6,000  chil- 
dren between  the  ages  of  6  and  16  years,  exclusive  of  230  children  of  colour 
for  whom  there  is  a  separate  school.  About  2,300  children  attended  the 
common  schools  and  1,700  private  schools.  The  number  of  common 
schools  is  18,  under  the  care  of  12  masters  and  5  asssitants,  6  mis- 
tresses and  7  assistant  mistresses.  The  masters  receive  400  dollars  a  year, 
and  the  assistants  250;  the  school  mistresses  216,  and  the  assistants  168. 
These  salaries  are  thought  to  be  too  low. 


CINCINNATI.  193 

the  numerous  mounds  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  of  which 
there  were  several  on  the  site  of  Cincinnati.* 

As  for  the  banks  they  are  modestly  lodged  at  Cincinnati, 
but  a  plan  of  a  handsome  edifice,  worthy  of  their  high 
fortune,  and  sufficient  to  accommodate  them  all,  is  at  pre- 
sent under  consideration.  The  founderies  for  casting 
steam-engines,  the  yards  for  building  steamboats,  the  noisy, 
unwholesome,  or  unpleasant  work-shops,  are  in  the  adjoin- 
ing village  of  Fulton,  in  Covington  or  Newport  on  the 
Kentucky  bank  of  the  river,  or  in  the  country.  As  to  the 
enormous  slaughter  of  hogs,  about  150,000  annually,  and 
the  preparation  of  the  lard,  which  follows,  the  town  is  not 
in  the  least  incommoded  by  it ;  the  whole  process  takes 
place  on  the  banks  of  a  little  stream  called  Deer  Creek, 
which  has  received  the  nickname  of  the  Bloody  Run,  from 
the  colour  of  its  waters  during  the  season  of  the  massacre, 
or  near  the  basins  of  the  great  canal,  which  extends  from 
Cincinnati  towards  the  Maumee  of  Lake  Erie.  Cincinnati 
has,  however,  no  squares  planted  with  trees  in  the  English 
taste,  no  parks  nor  walks,  no  fountains,  although  it  would 
be  very  easy  to  have  them.  It  is  necessary  to  wait  for 
the  ornamental,  until  the  taste  for  it  prevails  among  the 
inhabitants ;  at  present  the  useful  occupies  all  thoughts. 
Besides,  all  improvements  require  an  increase  of  taxes, 
and  in  the  United  States  it  is  not  easy  to  persuade  the 
people  to  submit  to  this.  (See  Note  20.)  Cincinnati  also 
stands  in  need  of  some  public  provision  for  lighting  the 
streets,  which  this  repugnance  to  taxes  has  hitherto  pre- 
vented. 


*  This  museum  has  one  show  which  I  never  saw  anywhere  else  ;  it  is  a 
representation  of  the  Infernal  Regions,  to  which  the  young  Cincinnati  girls 
resort  in  quest  of  that  excitement  which  a  comfortable  and  peaceful,  but  cold 
and  monotonous  manner  of  life  denies  them.  This  strange  spectacle  seems 
to  afford  a  delicious  agitation  to  their  nerves,  and  is  the  principal  source  of 
revenue  to  the  museum. 

25 


194  LETTER  XVIII. 

Cincinnati  has  had  water-works,  for  supplying  the  in- 
habitants with  water,  for  about  20  years ;  for  an  annual 
rate,  which  amounts  to  about  8  or  12  dollars  for  a  family, 
each  has  a  quantity  amply  sufficient  for  all  its  wants.  A 
steam-engine  on  the  banks  of  the  river  raises  the  water  to 
a  reservoir  on  one  of  the  hills  near  the  city,  300  feet  high, 
whence  it  is  conducted  in  iron  pipes  in  every  direction. 
The  height  of  the  reservoir  is  such  that  the  water  rises  to 
the  top  of  every  house,  and  fire-plugs  are  placed  at  inter- 
vals along  the  streets  to  supply  the  engines  in  case  of  fire. 
Several  of  the  new  towns  in  the  United  States  have  water- 
works, and  Philadelphia,  among  the  older  cities,  has  an 
admirable  system  of  works,  which,  owing  to  a  series  of 
unsuccessful  experiments,  have  cost  a  large  sum.*  At 
this  moment,  a  plan  for  supplying  Boston  with  water  is 
under  discussion,  which  will  cost  several  millions,  because 
the  water  must  be  brought  from  a  distance.  New  York 
is  also  engaged  in  a  similar  work,  the  expense  of  which 
will  be  about  five  millions.  The  Cincinnati  water-works 
have  not  cost  much  above  150,000  dollars,  although  they 
have  been  several  times  completely  reconstructed.  It  is 
generally  thought  in  the  United  States,  that  the  water- 
works ought  to  be  owned  by  the  towns,  but  those  in  Cin- 
cinnati belong  to  a  company,  and  the  water-rate  is,  there- 
fore, higher  than  in  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg.  The 
city  has  three  times  been  in  negociation  for  the  purchase 
of  the  works,  and  has  always  declined  buying  on  advan- 
tageous terms  ;  the  first  time  the  establishment  was  offered 
for  35,000  dollars,  and  the  second  time  for  80,000 ;  the 

*  The  water  used  in  Philadelphia  is  supplied  by  the  Schuylkill,  a  fall  in 
which  is  made  to  drive  the  pumps,  by  which  the  reservoirs  are  filled.  The 
Fairmount  works  are  arranged  and  ornamented  with  much  taste,  and  at  very 
little  expense ;  the  ornamental  part,  strictly  speaking,  merely  consists  of 
gome  lawns,  wooden  balustrades,  and  two  wretched  statues  ;  yet  the  effect 
is  very  elegant. 


CINCINNATI.  195 

third  time,  125,000  dollars  were  demanded,  and  300,000 
or  400,000  will  finally  be  paid  for  it.  In  this  case,  as  in 
regard  to  lighting  the  streets,  the  principal  cause  of  the 
refusal  of  the  city  to  buy  was  the  unwillingness  to  lay 
new  taxes. 

The  appearance  of  Cincinnati  as  it  is  approached  from 
the  water,  is  imposing,  and  it  is  still  more  so  when  it  is 
viewed  from  one  of  the  neighbouring  hills.  The  eye 
takes  in  the  windings  of  the  Ohio  and  the  course  of  the 
Licking,  which  enters  the  former  at  right  angles,  the 
steamboats  that  fill  the  port,  the  basin  of  the  Miami  canal, 
with  the  warehouses  that  line  it  and  the  locks  that  con- 
nect it  with  the  river,  the  white-washed  spinning  works 
of  Newport  and  Covington  with  their  tall  chimnies,  the 
Federal  arsenal,  above  which  floats  the  starry  banner,  and 
the  numerous  wooden  spires  that  crown  the  churches. 
On  all  sides  the  view  is  terminated  by  ranges  cf  hills, 
forming  an  amphitheatre  yet  covered  with  the  vigorous 
growth  of  the  primitive  forest.  This  rich  verdure  is  here 
and  there  interrupted  by  country  houses  surrounded  by 
colonnades,  which  are  furnished  by  the  forest.  The  popu- 
lation which  occupies  this  amphitheatre,  lives  in  the  midst 
of  plenty ;  it  is  industrious,  sober,  frugal,  thirsting  after 
knowledge,  and  if,  with  a  very  few  exceptions,  it  is  entirely 
a  stranger  to  the  delicate  pleasures  and  elegant  manners  of 
the  refined  society  of  our  European  capitals,  it  is  equally 
ignorant  of  its  vices,  dissipation,  and  follies. 

At  the  first  glance  one  does  not  perceive  any  difference 
between  the  right  and  left  bank  of  the  river ;  from  a  dis- 
tance, the  prosperity  of  Cincinnati  seems  to  extend  to  the 
opposite  shore.  This  is  an  illusion ;  on  the  right  bank, 
that  is,  in  Ohio,  there  are  none  but  freemen  ;  slavery  exists 
on  the  other  side.  You  may  descend  the  river  hundreds 
of  miles,  with  slavery  on  the  left  and  liberty  on  the  right, 
although  it  is  the  same  soil,  and  equally  capable  of  being 


196  LETTER  XVIII. 

cultivated  by  the  white  man.  When  you  enter  the  Missis- 
sippi you  have  slavery  on  both  sides  of  you.  A  blind 
carelessness,  or  rather  a  fatal  weakness  in  the  rulers,  and  a 
deplorable  selfishness  in  the  people,  have  allowed  this 
plague  to  become  fixed  in  a  country  where  there  was  no 
need  of  tolerating  its  existence.  Who  can  tell  when  and 
how,  and  through  what  sufferings,  it  will  be  possible  to 
eradicate  it  ? 

I  met  with  one  incident  in  Cincinnati,  which  I  shall 
long  remember.  I  had  observed  at  the  hotel  table  a  man 
of  about  the  medium  height,  stout  and  muscular,  and  of 
about  the  age  of  sixty  years,  yet  with  the  active  step  and 
lively  air  of  youth.  I  had  been  struck  with  his  open  and 
cheerful  expression,  the  amenity  of  his  manners,  and  a 
certain  air  of  command,  which  appeared  through  his  plain 
dress.  "  That  is,"  said  my  friend,  "  General  Harrison, 
clerk  of  the  Cincinnati  Court  of  Common  Pleas" — "  What ! 
General  Harrison  of  the  Tippecanoe  and  the  Thames  ?" 
"The  same;  the  ex-general,  the  conqueror  of  Tecumseh 
and  Proctor ;  the  avenger  of  our  disasters  on  the  Raisin 
and  at  Detroit ;  the  ex-governor  of  the  Territory  of  Indi- 
ana, the  ex-senator  in  Congress,  the  ex-minister  of  the 
United  States  to  one  of  the  South  American  republics. 
He  has  grown  old  in  the  service  of  his  country,  he  has 
passed  tAventy  years  of  his  life  in  those  fierce  wars  with 
the  Indians,  in  which  there  was  less  glory  to  be  won,  but 
more  dangers  to  be  encountered,  than  at  Rivoli  and  Aus- 
terlitz.  He  is  now  poor,  with  a  numerous  family,  neg- 
lected by  the  Federal  government,  although  yet  vigorous, 
because  he  has  the  independence  to  think  for  himself.  As 
the  Opposition  is  in  the  majority  here,  his  friends  have  be- 
thought themselves  of  coming  to  his  relief  by  removing 
the  clerk  of  the  court  of  Common  Pleas,  who  was  a  Jack- 
son man,  and  giving  him  the  place,  which  is  a  lucrative 
one,  as  a  sort  of  retiring  pension.  His  friends  in  the  East 


CINCINNATI.  197 

talk  of  making  him  President  of  the  United  States. 
Meanwhile  we  have  made  him  clerk  of  an  inferior  court." 
After  a  pause  my  informant  added,  "  At  this  wretched 
table  you  may  see  another  candidate  for  the  presidency, 
who  seems  to  have  a  better  chance  than  General  Harrison  ; 
it  is  Mr  McLean,  now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States." 

Examples  of  this  abandonment  of  men,  whose  career 
has  been  in  the  highest  degree  honourable,  are  not  rare  in 
the  United  States.     I  had  already  seen  the  illustrious  Gal- 
latin  at  New  York,  who,  after  having  grown  old  in  the 
service  of  the  republic,  after  having  been  for  forty  years  a 
legislator,  a  member  of  the  cabinet,  a  minister  abroad, 
after  having  taken  an  active  part  in  every  wise  and  good 
measure  of  the  Federal  government,  was  dismissed  with- 
out any  provision,  and  would  have  terminated  his  laborious 
career  in  poverty,  had  not  his  friends  offered  him  the  place 
of  president   of  one  of  the  banks  in  New   York.     The 
distress  of  President  Jefferson  in  his  old  age  is  well  known, 
and  that  he  was  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  asking  per- 
mission of  the  Virginia  legislature  to  dispose  of  his  estate 
by  lottery ;  while  President  Munroe,  still  more  destitute, 
after  having  spent  his  patrimony  in  the  service  of  the 
State,  was  constrained  to  implore  the  compassion  of  Con- 
gress ;  and  these  are  the  men  to  whom  their  country  owes 
the  invaluable  acquisitions  of  Louisiana  and  Florida.     The 
system  of  retiring  pensions  is  unknown  in  the  United 
States.     No  provision  is  made  for  the  old  age  of  eminent 
men  who  accept  the  highest  offices  in  the  State,  although 
it  is  impossible  for  them  to  lay  up  anything  out  of  their 
comparatively  moderate  salaries,  arid  several  of  them  have 
seen  their  fortunes  disappear  with  their  health  in  the  public 
service.     The  public  functionaries  are  treated  like  menial 
servants ;  the  system  of  domestic  life  is  such  in  the  United 
States,  that  every  American,  in  private  life,  treats  the 


198  LETTER  XVIII. 

humblest  of  his  white  domestics  with  more  respect,  than 
most  of  them  show,  in  public  life,  to  officers  of  the  highest 
rank.  On  every  occasion  and  in  a  thousand  forms,  the 
latter  are  reminded,  that  they  are  nothing  but  dust,  and 
that  a  frown  of  the  people  can  annihilate  them. 

This  treatment  of  their  public  officers  by  the  Americans 
is  the  mathematical  consequence  of  the  principle  of  popu- 
lar sovereignty ;  but  I  consider  it  as  consistent  neither 
with  reason  nor  justice.  If  it  is  true,  that  nations  have 
an  imprescriptible  right  to  regulate  the  conduct  of  the 
depositaries  of  power  conformably  to  their  own  interests, 
it  is  equally  true,  that  men  of  superior  abilities  and  worth 
have  a  natural  and  sacred  right  to"  be  invested  with  high 
powers  and  functions.  If  it  is  criminal  to  sport  with  the 
welfare  of  the  mass,  it  is  no  less  so  to  trample  under  foot 
the  wise  and  good.  And  if  those  whom  talents  and  zeal 
for  the  public  good  call  to  important  posts,  are  repulsed  by 
the  prospect  of  ingratitude  and  contempt,  to  what  hands 
shall  the  care  of  the  commonwealth  be  confided  ?  What 
will  then  be  the  fate  of  the  sovereign  people  ?  There  is 
no  less  despotism  in  a  people,  who,  impatient  of  all  supe- 
riority, repays  the  services  of  illustrious  citizens  only  with 
neglect,'  and  capriciously  throws  them  aside,  like  so  much 
garbage,  than  in  an  Asiatic  prince,  who  reduces  all  to  the 
same  level  of  servitude,  treats  all  with  the  same  insolence 
and  brutality,  and  considers  virtue  and  genius  overpaid  by 
the  honour  of  being  permitted  to  kneel  on  the  steps  of  his 
throne. 

In  conformity  with  the  prevailing  ideas  on  the  subject 
of  offices  and  officers,  no  sort  of  provision  has  been  made 
for  the  protection  of  the  latter.  They  are  removeable 
without  any  kind  of  pretence  or  formality,  without  being 
informed  of  the  ground  of  their  removal,  and  without  any 
reason  being  given  to  the  public.  In  this  way  a  terrible 
rod  of  tyranny  hangs  over  them,  although  under  the  mild 


CINCINNATI.  199 

and  moderate  administration  of  former  Presidents  little  use 
was  made  of  it ;  but,  since  the  accession  of  General  Jack- 
son, a  regular  system  of  removal  from  office  has  been 
sanctioned,  and  office  has  become  the  reward  of  party- 
services  ;  it  has  been  publicly  declared,  that  the  spoils  of 
victory  belong  to  the  conquerors.  President  Jackson  has 
filled  all  the  custom-houses  and  post  offices  with  his  crea- 
tures, and  this  policy  has  gained  over  some  States,  counties, 
and  towns ;  at  every  change  of  opinion,  the  State  changes 
its  executive  officers ;  the  legislators  change  their  secre- 
taries, printers,  and  even  'their  messengers  ;  the  courts, 
their  clerks ;  the  towns,  their  treasurers,  their  inspectors 
pf  markets,  weights  and  measures,  and  even  their  scaven- 
gers and  watchmen.  Men  in  office  now  understand,  that 
the  preservation  of  their  places  and  the  bread  of  their 
families  are  hazarded  at  every  municipal,  State,  or  Federal 
election,  according  as  they  hold  of  the  town,  State,  or 
general  government.  Formerly  they  took  no  part  in  elec- 
tion manoeuvres,  the  Presidents  having  expressly  forbidden 
the  officers  of  the  Federal  government  to  meddle  with 
them  ;  at  present,  they  are  the  most  active  agents  in  them. 
The  President  has  now  at  his  command  an  army  of  60,000 
voters,*  dependent  on  his  will,  whose  interests  are  bound 
up  in  his,  and  who  are  his  forlorn  hope.  So  true  is  it  that 
extremes  meet,  and  that,  by  pushing  to  excess  a  single 
principle,  however  true,  we  shall  come  to  conclusions, 
which,  practically  speaking,  amount  to  the  overthrow  of 
the  principle  itself.  Thus  by  drawing  out  too  fine  the 

*  In  a  report  on  executive  patronage  lately  made  to  the  Senate  by  Mr 
Calhoun,  the  following  statement  of  the  number  of  persons  employed  by 
the  Federal  government  is  given  : 

Administrative  and  financial  agents  12,144         Naval  affairs  6,499 
Military  Service  and  Indian  affairs      9,643        Post  Office   31,917 

Total  60,203 


200  LETTER  XIX. 

principle  of  the  popular  sovereignty,  we  may  come  nearer 
and  nearer  to  tyranny  and  the  oppression  of  the  people. 
Is  not  this  a  proof  that  logic  is  not  always  reason,  and 
that  truth  is  often,  if  not  always,  to  be  found  in  the  har- 
monious combinations  of  seemingly  contradictory  prin- 
ciples ? 


LETTER   XIX. 

CINCINNATI. 

NATCHEZ,  (Miss.)  JAN.  4,  1835. 

CINCINNATI  contains  about  40,000  inhabitants,  inclusive 
of  the  adjoining  villages ;  although  founded  40  years  ago, 
its  rapid  growth  dates  only  about  30  years  back.  It  seems 
to  be  the  rendezvous  of  all  nations ;  the  Germans  and 
Irish  are  very  numerous,  and  there  are  some  Alsacians ; 
I  have  often  heard  the  harsh  accents  of  the  Rhenish  French 
in  the  streets.  But  the  bulk  of  the  population,  which 
gives  its  tone  to  all  the  rest,  is  of  New  England  origin. 
What  makes  the  progress  of  Cincinnati  more  surprising  is, 
that  the  city  is  the  daughter  of  its  own  works.  Other 
towns,  which  have  sprung  up  in  the  United  States  in  the 
same  rapid  manner,  have  been  built  on  shares,  so  to  speak. 
Lowell,  for  example,  is  an  enterprise  of  Boston  merchants, 
who,  after  having  raised  the  necessary  funds,  have  collected 
workmen  and  told  them,  "  Build  us  a  town."  Cincinnati 
has  been  gradually  extended  and  embellished,  almost 
wholly  without  foreign  aid.  by  its  inhabitants,  who  have 
for  the  most  part  arrived  on  the  spot  poor.  The  founders 
of  Cincinnati  brought  with  them  nothing  but  sharp-sighted, 


CINCINNATI.  201 

wakeful,  untiring  industry,  the  only  patrimony  which  they 
inherited  from  their  New  England  fathers,  and  the  other 
inhabitants  have  scrupulously  followed  their  example  and 
adopted  their  habits.  They  seem  to  have  chosen  Franklin 
for  their  patron-saint,  and  to  have  adopted  Poor  Richard's 
maxims  as  a  fifth  gospel. 

I  have  said  that  Cincinnati  was  admirably  situated ; 
this  is  true  in  respect  of  its  geographical  position,  but,  if 
you  follow  the  courses  of  the  rivers  on  the  map,  and  con- 
sider the  natural  resources  of  the  district,  you  will  find 
that  there  are  several  points  on  the  long  line  of  the  rivers 
of  the  West  as  advantageously  placed,  both  for  trade  and 
manufactures,  and  that  there  are  some  which  are  even 
more  favoured  in  these  respects.  Pittsburg,  which  has 
within  reach  both  coal  and  iron,  that  is  to  say,  the  daily 
bread  of  industry,  which  stands  at  the  head  of  the  Ohio, 
at  the  starting  point  of  steam-navigation,  at  the  confluence 
of  the  Monongaheia  and  the  Alleghany,  coming  the  one 
from  the  south  and  the  other  from  the  north ;  Pittsburg, 
which  is  near  the  great  chain  of  lakes,  appears  as  the  pivot 
of  a  vast  system  of  roads,  railroads,  and  canals,  several  of 
"which  are  already  completed.  Pittsburg  was  marked  out 
by  nature  at  once  for  a  great  manufacturing  centre  and  a 
great,  mart  of  trade.  Louisville,  built  at  the  falls  of  the 
Ohio,  at  the  head  of  navigation  for  the  largest  class  of 
boats,  is  a  natural  medium  between  the  commerce  of  the 
upper  Ohio  and  that  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries. 
In  respect  to  manufacturing  resources,  Louisville  is  as  well 
provided  as  Cincinnati,  and  the  latter,  setting  aside  its 
enchanting  situation,  seemed  destined  merely  to  become 
the  market  of  the  fertile  strip  between  the  Great  and  Little 
Miami. 

But  the  power  of  men,  when  they  agree  in  willing  any- 
thing and  in  willing  it  perse veringly,  is  sufficient  to  over- 
bear and  conquer  that  of  nature.     In  spite  of  the  superior 
26 


202  LETTER  XIX. 

advantages  of  Louisville  as  an  entrepot,  in  spite  of  the 
manufacturing  resources  of  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati  is  able  to 
maintain  a  population  twice  that  of  Louisville  and  half  as 
large  again  as  that  of  Pittsburg  in  a  state  of  competence, 
which  equals,  if  it  does  not  surpass,  the  average  condition 
of  that  of  each  of  the  others.  The  inhabitants  of  Cincin- 
nati have  fixed  this  prosperity  among  them,  by  one  of  those 
instinctive  views  with  which  the  sons  of  New  England 
are  inspired  by  their  eminently  practical  and  calculating 
genius.  A  half-word,  they  say,  is  enough  for  the  wise, 
but  cleverer  than  the  wisest,  the  Yankees  understand  each 
other  without  speaking,  and  by  a  tacit  consent  direct  their 
common  efforts  toward  the  same  point.  To  work  Boston 
fashion  means,  in  the  United  States,  to  do  anything  with 
perfect  precision  and  without  words.  The  object  which 
the  Cincinnatians  have  had  in  view,  almost  from  the  origin 
of  their  city,  has  been  nothing  less  than  to  make  it  the 
capital,  or  great  interior  mart  of  the  West.  The  indirect 
means  which  they  have  employed,  have  been  to  secure 
the  manufacture  of  certain  articles,  which,  though  of  little 
value  separately  considered,  form  an  important  aggregate 
when  taken  together,  and  getting  the  start  of  their  neigh- 
bours, with  that  spirit  of  diligence  that  characterises  the 
Yankees,  they  have  accordingly  distributed  the  manufac- 
ture of  these  articles  among  themselves.  This  plan  has 
succeeded. 

Thus  with  the  exception  of  the  pork  trade,  one  is  sur- 
prised not  to  see  any  branch  of  industry  carried  on  on  the 
great  scale  of  the  manufacturing  towns  of  England  and 
France.  The  Cincinnatians  make  a  variety  of  household 
furniture  and  utensils,  agricultural  and  mechanical  imple- 
ments and  machines,  wooden  clocks,  and  a  thousand 
objects  of  daily  use  and  consumption,  soap,  candles,  paper, 
leather,  &c.,  for  which  there  is  an  indefinite  demand 
throughout  the  nourishing  and  rapidly  growing  States  of 


CINCINNATI.  203 

the  West,  and  also  in  the  new  States  of  the  Southwest, 
which  are  wholly  devoted  to  agriculture,  and  in  which,  on 
account  of  the  existence  of  slavery,  manufactures  cannot 
be  carried  on.  Most  of  these  articles  are  of  ordinary 
quality  ;  the  furniture,  for  instance,  is  rarely  such  as  would 
be  approved  by  Parisian  taste,  but  it  is  cheap  and  neat, 
just  what  is  wanted  in  a  new  country,  where,  with  the 
exception  of  a  part  of  the  South,  there  is  a  general  ease 
and  but  little  wealth,  and  where  plenty  and  comfort  are 
more  generally  known  than  the  little  luxuries  of  a  more 
refined  society.  The  prosperity  of  Cincinnati,  therefore, 
rests  upon  the  sure  basis  of  the  prosperity  of  the  West, 
upon  the  supply  of  articles  of  the  first  necessity  to  the 
bulk  of  the  community ;  a  much  more  solid  foundation 
than  the  caprice  of  fashion,  upon  which,  nevertheless,  the 
branches  of  industry  most  in  favour  with  us,  depend. 
The  intellectual  also  receives  a  share  of  attention ;  in  the 
first  place,  there  is  a  large  type-foundery  in  Cincinnati, 
which  supplies  the  demand  of  the  whole  West,  and  of  that 
army  of  newspapers  that  is  printed  in  it.  According  to 
the  usual  English  or  American  mode  of  proceeding,  the 
place  of  human  labour  is  supplied  as  much  as  possible  by 
machinery,  and  I  have  seen  several  little  contrivances  here, 
that  are  not  probably  to  be  found  in  the  establishments  of 
the  Royal  Press  or  of  the  Didots.  Then  the  printing- 
presses  are  numerous,  and  they  issue  nothing  but  publica- 
tions in  general  demand,  such  as  school-books,  and  religious 
books,  and  newspapers.  By  means  of  this  variety  of 
manufactures,  which,  taken  separately  appear  of  little  con- 
sequence, Cincinnati  has  taken  a  stand,  from  which  it  will 
be  very  difficult  to  remove  her,  for,  in  this  matter,  priority 
of  occupation  is  no  trifling  advantage.  The  country  trader, 
who  keeps  an  assortment  of  everything  vendible,  is  sure 
to  find  almost  everything  he  wants  in  Cincinnati,  and  he, 
therefore,  goes  thither  in  preference  to  any  other  place  in 


204  LETTER  XIX. 

order  to  lay  in  his  stock  of  goods.  Cincinnati  is  thus  in 
fact  the  great  central  mart  of  the  West ;  a  great  quantity 
and  variety  of  produce  and  manufactured  articles  find  a 
vent  here,  notwithstanding  the  natural  superiority  of  sev- 
eral other  sites,  either  in  regard  to  the  extent  of  water- 
communication  or  mineral  resources. 

M.  Fourrier  has  characterised  the  spirit  of  the  19th  cen- 
tury by  the  term  industrial  feudalism.  The  human  race, 
according  to  some,  has  thrown  off  one  yoke  only  to  bear 
another,  less  burdensome  perhaps,  but  also  less  noble. 
The  warlike  lords  of  the  Middle  Ages  have  passed  away? 
but  the  industrial  lords  have  come  to  take  their  place,  the 
princes  of  manufactures,  banks,  and  commerce.  These 
new  masters  will  embitter  the  life  of  the  poor  with  less 
distress  and  privation,  but  they  will  also  shed  less  glory 
upon  it.  They  will  increase  the  body's  pittance,  but 
diminish  the  soul's.  At  the  sight  of  the  great  manufacto- 
ries of  England  and  some  of  those  of  the  European  con- 
tinent, of  those  which  are  multiplying  so  rapidly  in  New 
England,  in  that  wonderful  creation  the  city  of  Lowell, 
one  is  tempted  to  think  that  the  industrial  feudalism  is 
already  established  in  the  former,  and  is  creeping  beneath 
the  democratic  institutions,  like  the  snake  under  the  grass, 
in  the  latter.  Those  who  do  not  believe  that  the  human 
race  can  go  backward,  and  who  prefer  to  rock  themselves 
in  the  cradle  of  hope,  rather  than  to  yield  to  flat  despair, 
while  they  admit  the  existence  of  this  tendency  of  the 
age,  console  themselves  by  the  contemplation  of  its  other 
characteristic  features,  at  the  head  of  which  they  place 
the  general  spirit  of  emancipation,  which  breaks  down  all 
obstacles  in  its  way.  If  in  England,  for  instance,  there 
are,  in  the  factories,  a  thousand  germs  of  despotism,  there 
are,  in  the  working  classes,  a  thousand  germs  of  resistance, 
in  the  population  a  thousand  germs  of  liberalism ;  there 
are  Trades'  Unions,  there  are  radicals :  neither  of  these 


CINCINNATI.  205 

opposite  forces  alone  will  decide  the  destinies  of  the  fu- 
ture. From  their  opposing  impulses  will  result  a  single 
force,  different  from  both,  yet  partaking  of  both.  The 
force  of  emancipation  will  make  what  to  some  seems 
about  to  become  feudalism,  simply  patronage. 

Patronage  has  not  finished  its  career  upon  the  earth  ;  it 
will  endure  while  Providence  shall  continue  to  cast  men  in 
different  moulds  ;  it  will  subsist  for  the  good  of  the  weak 
and  the  poor,  and  for  that  of  the  class  of  men,  so  numer- 
ous in  southern  Europe,  for  example,  who  require  the  sup- 
port of  somebody  more  powerful  than  themselves.  But  it 
will  be  modified  in  character,  growing  successively  less 
and  less  violent,  and  more  and  more  mild.  The  inferior 
has  been  a  slave,  a  serf,  a  paid  freeman  ;  he  may  in  time 
become  an  associate  or  partner  without  ceasing  to  be  an 
inferior.  However  this  may  be,  there  is  no  germ  of  in- 
dustrial feudalism  in  Cincinnati,  there  are  no  great  factories 
or  work-shops.  Mechanical  industry  is  subdivided  there, 
pretty  much  as  the  soil  is  amongst  us  ;  each  head  of  a 
family,  with  his  sons  and  some  newly  arrived  emigrants 
as  assistants  and  servants,  has  his  domain  in  this  great 
field.  Cincinnati  is,  therefore,  as  republican  in  its  indus- 
trial organisation,  as  in  its  political.  This  subdivision  of 
manufactures  has  hitherto  been  attended  with  no  inconve- 
nience, because  in  the  vast  West,  whose  growth  is  visible 
to  the  eye,  the  production  cannot  at  present  keep  pace  with 
the  consumption.  But  how  will  it  be  in  a  century,  or 
perhaps  in  fifty  years  ?  Will  not  the  condition  of  mechan- 
ical industry  undergo  some  great  change,  or  rather  will 
not  the  whole  of  this  vast  region  undergo  a  complete 
change  of  character  and  condition,  which  will  involve  a 
reorganisation  of  the  industrial  system  ? 

The  moral  aspect  of  Cincinnati  is  delightful  in  the  eyes 
of  him  who  prefers  work  to  every  thing  else,  and  with 
whom  work  can  take  the  place  of  every  thing  else.  But 


206  .  LETTER  XIX. 

whoever  has  a  taste  for  pleasure  and  display,  whoever  needs 
occasional  relaxation  from  business,  in  gaiety  and  amuse- 
ment, would  find  this  beautiful  city,  with  its  picturesque 
environs,  an  insupportable  residence.  It  would  be  still 
more  so  for  a  man  of  leisure,  desirous  of  devoting  a  large 

/  •  o  o 

part  of  his  time  to  the  cultivation  of  the  fine  arts  and  the 
rest  to  pleasure.  For  such  a  man,  indeed,  it  would  not 
be  possible  to  live  here  ;  he  would  find  himself  denounced 
irom  political  considerations,  because  men  of  loisure  are 
looked  upon  in  the  United  States  as  so  many  stepping- 
stones  to  aristocracy,  and  anathematised  by  religion,  for  the 
various  sects,  however  much  they  may  differ  on  other 
points,  all  agree  in  condemning  pleasure,  luxury,  gallantry, 
the  fine  arts  themselves.  Now  the  United  States  are  not 
like  some  countries  in  Europe,  particularly  France,  where 
religion  and  the  pulpit  can  be  braved  with  impunity. 
Hemmed  in  by  the  laborious  habits  of  the  country,  by 
political  notions,  and  by  religion,  a  man  must  either  resign 
himself  to  the  same  mode  of  life  with  the  mass,  or  seek  a 
soil  less  unfriendly  to  his  tastes  in  the  great  cities  of  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  or  New  Orleans,  or  even  in  Europe. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  such  thing  in  Cincinnati  as  a  class 
of  men  of  leisure,  living  without  any  regular  profession 
on  their  patrimony,  or  on  the  wealth  acquired  by  their 
own  enterprise  in  early  life,  although  there  are  many  per- 
sons of  opulence,  having  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  and 
upwards.  I  met  a  young  man  there,  the  future  heir  of  a 
large  fortune,  who,  after  having  been  educated  at  West 
Point  and  received  a  commission,  had  retired  from  the  ser- 
vice in  order  to  live  at  home.  Wearied  out  with  his  solitary 
leisure,  burdened  with  the  weight  of  his  own  person,  he 
could  find  no  other  relief  than  to  open  a  fancy-goods 
shop. 

Every  where  in  the  United  States  where  there  are  no 
slaves,  and  out  of  the  large  towns  of  the  sea-coast,  a  strict 


CINCINNATI.  207 

watch  is  kept  up  in  regard  to  persons  of  leisure,  obliging 
those  who  might  be  seduced  by  a  taste  for  this  kind  of 
life  to  fall  into  the  ranks  and  work,  at  least  until  age 
makes  repose  necessary.     Public  opinion  is  on  the  lookout 
to  banish  any  habits  of  dissipation,  however  innocent,  that 
might  get  a  footing  in  society,  and  make  a  life  of  leisure 
tolerable.     Religious  and  philanthropical  societies,  institu- 
ted under  various  names,  take  upon  themselves  the  task  of 
enforcing  the  decrees  of  public  opinion ;  like  vigilant  sen- 
tinels, they  compel  a  rigid  observance  of  the  austerities,  or 
if  you  choose  the  ennuis,  of  Sunday,  labour  to  suppress 
intemperance  and  gaming,  the  spirit  of  which,  if   once 
diffused  among  a  people  so  wholly  devoted  to  money- 
making,  might  lead  to  the  most  fatal  consequences.    These 
societies  and  committees  pursue  their  task  with  a  more 
than  British  perseverance,  and  sometimes  with  a  puritani- 
cal fanaticism.     When  Mr  John  Quincy  Adams  became 
President,  he  had  a  billiard-table  placed  in  the  President's 
House,  and  such  is  here  the  real  or  affected  abhorrence  of 
every  thing  called  a  game,  that  this  billiard-table  was  ac- 
tually one  of  the  arguments  against  the  re-election  of  Mr 
Adams.     "  It  is  a  scandal,  the  abomination  of  desolation," 
Avas  the  general  cry.     Mr  Adams,  whose  private  character 
is  above  suspicion,  was,  if  we  must  believe  the  Opposition 
journals  of  the  day,  a  teacher  of  immorality,  because  he 
had  a  billiard-table  in  his  house,  and  General  Jackson  has 
doubtless  caused  that  scandalous  piece  of  furniture  to  be 
broken  up  and  burnt,  since  he  has  become  master  of  the 
White  House.    Any  where  else  this  rigour  would  be  called 
intolerance,  inquisition ;  here  it  is  submitted  to  without  a 
murmur,  and  few  persons  are  really  annoyed  by  it,  or  show 
that  they  are.     The  American  can  support  a  constant  and 
unrelaxing  devotion  to  labour  ;  he  does  not  feel  the  need  of 
amusement  and  recreation.     The  silence  and  retirement  of 
his  Sunday  seem  to  be  a  more  effectual  relaxation  for  him, 


208  LETTER  XIX. 

than  the  noisy  gaiety  of  our  festivals  ;  one  might  even 
say  that  he  was"  destitute  of  the  sense  of  pleasure.  All 
his  faculties  and  energies  are  admirably  and  vigorously 
combined  for  production  ;  he  wants  those  without  which 
pleasure  is  not  enjoyment,  and  amusement  is  but  a  pain- 
ful effort ;  and,  between  these  two  kinds  of  work,  he 
would  of  course  prefer  that  which  is  gainful,  to  that  which 
is  expensive. 

Such  a  social  organisation  is  the  very  best  for  a  pioneer 
people.  Without  this  devotion  to  business,  without  this 
constant  direction  of  the  energies  of  the  mind  to  useful 
enterprises,  without  this  indifference  to  pleasure,  without 
those  political  and  religious  notions  which  imperiously  re- 
press all  passions  but  those  whose  objects  are  business, 
production,  and  gain,  can  any  one  suppose  that  the  Amer- 
icans would  ever  have  achieved  their  great  industrial  con- 
quests ?  With  any  other  less  exclusive  system,  they  would 
yet,  perhaps,  be  meditating  the  passage  over  the  Allegha- 
nies.  Instead  of  having  that  great  domain  of  the  West, 
immense  in  its  extent  and  resources,  already  cleared  and 
cultivated,  furrowed  with  roads  and  dotted  over  with  farms, 
they  would  probably  be  still  confined  to  the  sandy  strip 
that  borders  the  Atlantic.  It  must  be  allowed  that  this  ardent 
and  entire  devotion  to  business  gives  the  nation  a  strange 
aspect  in  the  eyes  of  a  European  :  And  this  explains  the 
fact  that  the  Americans  have  found  so  little  favour  with 
most  foreigners  who  have  visited  their  country.  But,  in 
return,  they  are  sure  of  the  gratitude  of  that  innumerable 
posterity  for  whom  they  are  preparing  with  such  energy 
and  sagacity  an  abode  of  plenty,  a  land  of  promise.  This 
posterity,  it  is  said,  will  change  the  habits  of  their  fathers, 
will  adopt  new  tastes,  and  even  new  institutions.  So  be 
it !  It  is  of  little  consequence  whether  the  Americans  of 
the  20th  or  21st  century,  shall  retain  the  national  charac- 
ter, customs,  and  laws  of  the  Americans  of  the  19th. 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  209 

But  the  more  interesting  consideration  is,  whether  the 
Americans  of  our  day  do  not  fulfil,  as  perfectly  as  human 
nature  is  capable  of  doing,  the  mission  which  Providence 
has  entrusted  to  them,  that  of  acting  as  a  nation  of  pio- 
neers and  subduers  of  the  forest ;  and  if  they  do  not  de- 
serve to  be  excused,  like  all  nations  and  individuals,  for 
having  the  defects  inherent  in  their  good  qualities.  The 
question  thus  stated  will  be  easily  answered  by  every 
one  who  sets  any  value  on  the  interests  and  welfare  of  the 
future. 


LETTER '  XX. 

WESTERN      STEAMBOATS. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  JAN.  8,  1835. 

ONE  of  the  points  in  which  modern  society  differs  most 
from  the  ancient,  is,  certainly,  the  facility  of  travelling. 
Formerly  it  was  possible  only  for  a  patrician  to  travel ;  it 
was  "necessary  to  be  rich  even  to  travel  like  a  philosopher. 
Merchants  moved  in  caravans,  paying  tribute  to  the  Be- 
doweens  of  the  desert,  to  the  Tartars  of  the  steppes,  to  the 
chieftains  perched,  like  eagles,  in  castles  built  in  the  moun- 
tain passes.  Instead  of  the  English  stage-coach,  or  the 
post-chaise,  rattling  at  high  speed  over  the  paved  road, 
they  had  the  old  Asiatic  litter  or  palanquin,  still  preserved 
in  Spanish  America,  or  the  camel,  the  ship  of  the  desert, 
or  four  bullocks  yoked  to  the  slow  wagon,  or  for  the  com- 
mon citizens  or  the  iron  warriors,  the  horse ;  and  instead 
of  those  sumptuous  steam-packets,  genuine  floating  palaces, 
the  small  and  frail  bark,  pursued  by  robbers  on  the  rivers 
27 


210  LETTER  XX. 

and  by  pirates  by  sea,  the  sight  of  which  extorted  from 
the  Epicurean  Horace  the  exclamation  of  terror, 

Illi  robur  et  aes  triplex — Circa  pectus  erat 

The  roads  were  then  rough  and  narrow  paths,  rendered 
dangerous  by  the  violence  of  men,  or  by  the  monsters  of 
the  forest,  or  by  precipices.  A  long  train  of  luggage,  pro- 
visions, servants,  and  guards,  was  necessary,  and  from  time 
to  time  the  traveller  reposed  himself  with  some  hereditary 
friend  of  his  family,  for  there  were  then  no  comfortable 
hotels,  in  which  he  can  now  procure  all  he  needs  for 
money,  and  command  the  attentive  services  of  officious 
attendants.  If  there  were  any  place  of  shelter,  it  was 
some  filthy  den,  like  the  caravanserais  of  the  East,  wretch- 
ed, naked,  and  comfortless,  where  he  found  nothing  but 
water  and  a  roof,  pr  like  the  inns  of  Spain  and  South 
America,  which  are  a  happy  mean  between  a  caravanserai 
and  a  stable.  The  great  bulk  of  mankind,  slaves  in  fact 
and  in  name,  were  then  attached  to  the  glebe,  chained  to 
the  soil  by  the  difficulty  of  locomotion. 

To  improve  the  means  of  communication,  then,  is  to 
promote  a  real,  positive,  and  practical  liberty ;  it  is  to  ex- 
tend to  all  the  members  of  the  human  family  the  power 
of  traversing  and  turning  to  account  the  globe,  which  has 
been  given  to  them  as  their  patrimony ;  it  is  to  increase 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  greatest  number,  as  truly 
and  as  amply  as  could  be  done  by  electoral  laws ;  I  go 
further,  it  is  to  establish  equality  and  democracy.  The 
effect  of  the  most  perfect  system  of  transportation  is  to 
reduce  the  distance  not  only  between  different  places,  but 
between  different  classes.  Where  the  rich  and  the  great 
travel  only  with  a  pompous  retinue,  while  the  poor  man7 
who  goes  to  the  next  village,  drags  himself  singly  along 
in  mud  and  sand,  over  rocks  and  through  thickets,  the 
word  equality  is  a  mockery  and  a  falsehood,  and  aristocracy 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  211 

stares  you  in  the  face.  In  India  and  China,  in  the  Ma- 
hometan countries,  in  half- Arabian  Spain  and  her  former 
American  colonies,  it  matters  little  whether  the  govern- 
ment is  called  republic,  empire,  or  limited  monarchy ;  the 
peasant  and  the  labourer  cannot  there  persuade  himself 
that  he  is  the  equal  of  the  soldier,  the  brahmin,  the  man- 
darin, the  pacha,  or  the  noble,  whose  retinue  runs  over 
him,  or  covers  him  with  mud.  Spite  of  himself,  he  is 
filled  with  awe  at  its  approach,  and  servilely  bends  before 
it  as  it  passes  him.  In  Great  Britain,  on  the  contrary,  in 
spite  of  the  wealth  and  the  great  privileges  of  the  nobility, 
the  mechanic  and  the  labourer,  who  can  go  to  the  office 
and  get  a  ticket  for  the  railroad  cars,  if  they  have  a  few 
shillings  in  their  pockets,  and  who  have  the  right,  if  they 
will  pay  for  it,  of  sitting  in  the  same  vehicle,  on  the  same 
seat  with  the  baronet  or  the  peer  and  duke,  feel  their 
dignity  as  men,  and  touch,  as  it  were,  the  fact,  that  there 
is  not  an  impassable  gulf  between  them  and  the  nobility. 

These  considerations  would  make  me  slow  to  believe  in 
the  tyrannical  projects  of  a  government  which  should 
devote  itself  zealously  to  the  task  of  opening  roads  through 
the  country,  and  diminishing  the  time  and  expense  of 
transportation.  Is  it  not  true  that  ideas,  as  well  as  goods, 
circulate  along  the  great  highways,  the  canals,  and  the 
rivers,  and  that  every  travelling  clerk  is  more  or  less  a 
missionary  ?  Those  who  are  possessed  with  the  retrograde 
spirit,  are  fully  convinced  of  this  fact ;  they  favour  no 
projects  of  internal  improvement ;  they  fear  an  engineer 
almost  as  much  as  they  do  a  publisher  of  Voltaire.  As  it 
is  undeniable  that  one  of  the  first  railroads  in  Europe  was 
constructed  in  the  Austrian  empire,  as  the  imperial  gov- 
ernment has  opened  many  fine  roads  from  one  end  of  its 
possessions  to  the  other,  and  as  it  is  encouraging  the  intro- 
duction of  steamboats  on  the  Danube,  I  may  venture  to 
conclude  that  Von  Metternich  deserves  a  better  reputation 


212  LETTER  XX. 

than  he  enjoys,  on  this  side  the  Rhine.  You  know,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  during  the  short  ministry  of  M.  de 
Labourdonnaye,  in  1829,  the  surveys  and  plans  of  various 
roads  in  Vendee  disappeared  from  the  archives,  and  have 
never  since  been  found.  Only  a  few  months  ago,  in 
Puebla,  one  of  the  free  and  sovereign  States  of  the  Mexican 
confederacy,  which,  however,  enjoys  a  very  high  reputa- 
tion for  ignorance  and  bigotry,  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  animated  with  a  holy  wrath  against  those  ruthless 
unbelievers  (mostly  foreigners),  who  have  pushed  the  sacri- 
legious spirit  of  innovation  so  far  as  to  set  up  a  line  of 
stage-coaches  betewen  Vera  Cruz  and  Mexico,  and  to 
repair  the  great  road  between  the  two  cities,  imposed  an 
annual  tax  of  135,000  dollars  upon  them,  and  prohibited 
their  taking  any  tolls  within  the  limits  of  the  State. 

There  is  a  region  where,  by  simply  perfecting  the  means 
of  water-transportation,  a  revolution  has  been  produced, 
the  consequences  of  which  on  the  balance  of  power  in 
the  New  World  are  incalculable.  It  is  the  great  Valley  of 
the  Mississippi,  which  had,  indeed,  been  conquered  from 
the  wild  beasts  and  Red  Skins  previous  to  the  invention 
of  Fulton,  but  which,  without  the  labours  of  his  genius, 
would  never  have  been  covered  with  rich  and  populous 
States.  After  the  conquest  of  Canada  had  put  an  end  to 
the  brilliant  but  sterile  exploits  of  the  French  on  the  Ohio 
and  the  Mississippi,  the  Anglo-Americans,  then  subjects  of 
the  king  of  Great  Brirain,  began  to  spread  themselves  over 
the  Valley.  The  first  settlers  seated  themselves  in  Keri- 
tucky,  and  occupied  the  soil  for  agricultural  purposes.  In 
a  short  time  they  had  effaced  from  its  surface  the  slight 
traces,  which  the  French,  almost  exclusively  engaged  in 
hunting,  had  left  of  their  passage.  Instead  of  the  little 
and  restless,  but  indolent  race  produced  by  a  cross  of 
French  with  Indian  blood,  the  new  comers,  avoiding  all 
mixture  with  the  natives,  produced  a  laborious  and  ener- 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  213 

getic  population,  which,  on  this  fertile  soil,  and  like  its 
natural  productions,  acquired  those  gigantic  proportions, 
which  characterise  the  Western- Virginian,  the  Kentuckian, 
and  the  Tennesseean,  no  less  than  the  trees  of  their  forests. 
Without  ever  laying  aside  their  rifles,  which  forty  years 
ago  were  carried  to  divine  service  in  Cincinnati  itself,  they 
cleared  and  brought  under  the  plough,  the  fertile  tracts, 
which  were  converted  into  fine  farms  for  themselves  and 
their  rapidly  multiplying  families.  They  had  to  pass 
days  of  terrour  and  distress,  and  in  many  an  encounter  with 
the  Indians,  from  whom  they  conquered  the  wilderness, 
more  than  one  husband,  and  more  than  one  father,  fell 
under  the  balls  of  the  Red  men,  were  dragged  into  the 
most  wretched  captivity,  or  underwent  the  horrid  torments 
of  the  stake.  The  name  of  Blue  Licks  still  sounds  in 
the  ears  of  Kentucky,  like  that  of  Waterloo  in  ours.  Be- 
fore the  decisive  victory  of  the  Fallen  Timber,  gained  by 
General  Wayne,  two  American  armies,  under  the  command 
of  Generals  Harmer  and  Saint  Clair,  were  successively 
defeated  with  great  slaughter.  The  story  of  this  long 
struggle  between  the  whites  and  the  Red  men  is  still  re- 
peated in  the  bar-rooms  of  the  West. 

.In  1811,  although  the  formidable  Tecumseh  and  his 
brother  the  Prophet,  had  not  yet  been  conquered  by  Gen- 
eral Harrison,  the  American  had  extended  his  undisputed 
empire  over  the  most  fertile  districts  of  the  West.  Here 
and  there  villages  had  been  built ;  and  the  forest  every 
where  showed  clearings,  in  the  midst  of  which  stood  the 
log-house  of  some  squatter  or  some  more  legal  proprietor. 
On  the  left  bank  of  the  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
had  been  erected  into  States,  and  Western  Virginia  had 
been  settled.  A  current  of  emigration  had  transported  the 
industrious  sons  of  New  England  upon  the  right  bank  of 
the  river,  and  by  their  energy  the  State  of  Ohio  had  been 
founded,  and  already  contained  nearly  250,000  inhabi- 


214  LETTER  XX. 

tants.  Indiana  and  Illinois,  then  mere  Territories,  gave 
fair  promise  of  the  future.  The  treaty  of  1803  had  added 
to  the  Union  our  Louisiana,  in  which  one  State  and  several 
Territories,  with  a  total  population  of  160,000  souls  had 
already  been  organised.  The  whole  West,  at  that  time,  had 
a  population  of  nearly  a  million  and  a  half :  Pittsburg  and 
Cincinnati  were  considerable  towns.  The  West  had,  then, 
made  a  rapid  progress,  but  separated  as  it  was  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  by  the  circuitous  windings  and  the  gloomy 
swamps  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the  eastern  cities  by  the 
seven  or  eight  ridges  that  form  the  Alleghany  Mountains, 
destitute  of  outlets  and  markets,  its  further  progress  seem- 
ed to  be  arrested.  The  embryo  could  grow  but  slowly 
and  painfully,  for  want  of  the  proper  channels  through 
which  the  sources  of  life  might  circulate. 

At  present,  routes  of  communication  have  been  made 
or  are  making  from  all  sides,  connecting  the  rivers  of  the 
West  with  the  Eastern  coast,  on  which  stand  the  great 
marts,  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Rich- 
mond, and  Charleston.  At  that  time,  there  was  not  one 
which  was  practicable  through  the  whole  year,  and  there 
was  not  capital  enough  to  undertake  one.  All  the  com- 
merce of  the  West  was  carried  on  by  the  Ohio  and  the 
Mississippi,  which  is,  indeed,  still,  and,  probably,  always 
will  be,  the  most  economical  route  for  bulky  objects.  The 
western  boatmen  descended  the  rivers  with  their  corn  and 
salt-meat  in  flat  boats,  like  the  Seine  coal-boats  ;  the  goods 
of  Europe  and  the  produce  of  the  Antilles,  were  slowly 
transported  up  the  rivers  by  the  aid  of  the  oar  and  the 
sail,  the  voyage  consuming  at  the  least  one  hundred  days, 
and  sometimes  two  hundred.  One  hundred  days  is  nearly 
the  length  of  a  voyage  from  New  York  by  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  to  Canton  ;  in  the  same  space  of  time  France 
was  twice  conquered,  once  by  the  allies  and  once  by  Na- 
poleon. The  commerce  of  the  West,  was,  therefore, 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  215 

necessarily  very  limited,  and  the  inhabitants,  separated 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  had  all  the  rudeness  of  the 
forest.  It  was  in  this  period  and  this  state  of  manners, 
that  the  popular  saying,  which  describes  the  Kentuckian 
as  half  horse,  half  alligator,  had  its  origin.  The  num- 
ber of  boats,  which  made  the  voyage  up  and  down  once  a 
year,  did  not  exceed  ten,  measuring  on  an  average  about 
100  tons ;  other  small  boats,  averaging  about  30  tons 
measurement,  carried  on  the  trade  between  different  points 
on  the  rivers,  beside  which  there  were  numerous  flat 
boats,  which  did  not  make  a  return  voyage.  Freight  from 
New  Orleans  to  Louisville  or  Cincinnati  was  six,  seven, 
and  even  nine  cents  a  pound.  At  present  the  passage 
from  Louisville  to  New  Orleans  is  made  in  about  8  or  9 
days,  and  the  return  voyage  in  10  or  12,  and  freight  is 
often  less  than  half  a  cent  a  pound  from  the  latter  to  the 
former. 

In  1811,  the  first  steamboat  in  the  West,  built  by  Ful- 
ton, started  from  Pittsburg  for  New  Orleans  ;  it  bore  the 
name  of  the  latter  city.  But  such  are  the  difficulties  in 
the  navigation  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and  such  was 
the  Imperfection  of  the  first  boats,  that  it  was  nearly  six 
years  before  a  steamboat  ascended  from  New  Orleans,  and 
then  not  to  Pittsburg,  but  to  Louisville,  600  miles  below 
it.  The  first  voyage  was  made  in  twentyfive  days,  and 
it  caused  a  great  stir  in  the  West ;  a  public  dinner  was 
given  to  Captain  Shreve,  who  had  solved  the  problem. 
Then  and  not  before,  was  the  revolution  completed  in  the 
condition  of  the  West,  and  the  hundred-day  boats  were 
supplanted.  In  1818,  the  number  of  steamboats  was  20, 
making  an  aggregate  of  3,642  tons ;  in  1819  the  whole  num- 
ber that  had  been  built  was  40,  of  which  33  were  still  run- 
ning ;  in  1821,  there  were  72  in  actual  service.  In  that  year 
the  Car  of  Commerce,  Captain  Pierce,  made  the  passage  from 
New  Orleans  to  Shawneetown,  a  little  below  Louisville, 


216  LETTER  XX. 

in  10  days.  In  1825,  after  fourteen  years  of  trials  and 
experiments,  the  proper  proportion  between  the  machinery 
and  the  boats  was  finally  settled  (See  Note  21).  In  1827, 
the  Tecumseh  ascended  from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville 
in  eight  days  and  two  hours.  In  1829,  the  number  of 
boats  was  200,  with  a  total  tonnage  of  35,000  tons ;  in 
1832,  there  were  220  boats  making  an  aggregage  of 
40,000  tons,  and  at  present  there  are  240,  measuring 
64,000  tons.  According  to  statements  made  to  me  by 
experienced  and  well-informed  persons,  the  whole  amount 
of  merchandise  annually  transported  by  them  between 
New  Orleans  and  the  upper  country,  is  at  least  140,000 
tons.  The  trade  between  the  basins  of  the  Ohio,  the 
Tennessee,  and  the  Upper  Mississippi,  not  included  in  this 
amount,  forms  another  considerable  mass.  To  have  an 
idea  of  the  whole  extent  of  the  commerce  on  the  western 
waters,  we  must  also  add  from  160,000  to  180,000  tons  of 
provisions  and  various  objects,  which  go  down  in  flat-boats. 
This  amount  is,  indeed,  enormous,  and  yet  it  is  probably 
but  a  trifle  compared  with  what  will  be  transported  on  the 
rivers  of  the  Wep£  in  20  years  from  this  time  ;  for  on  the 
Erie  canal,  which,  compared  with  the  Mississippi  is  a 
line  of  but  secondary  importance,  and  at  a  single  point, 
Utica,  420,000  tons  passed  in  a  period  of  seven  months 
and  a  half. 

Such  is  the  influence  of  routes  of  communication  on 
which  cheapness  is  combined  with  dispatch.*  In  Mexico, 
where  nature  has  done  so  much,  and  where,  in  return, 
man  has  done  so  little,  in  those  countries  where  natural 
resources  are,  perhaps,  tenfold  greater  than  those  of  the 
United  States,  but  where  man  is  a  hundred  fold  less  active 


*  Freight  on  our  canals  is  only  about  half  as  high  as  in  the  United  States ; 
but  this  advantage  is  counterbalanced  by  the  excessive  slowness  of  our 
movements. 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  217 

and  industrious,  transportation  is  effected  wholly  on  the 
backs  of  mules  or  men,  even  in  the  plain  country.  The 
annual  amount  of  the  transportation  from  Vera  Cruz,  the 
principal  port,  to  Mexico,  the  capital  of  the  country,  does 
not,  therefore,  amount  to  6,000  tons,  and  the  descending 
freight  is  much  less.  The  western  steamboats  look  very 
much  like  the  Vigier  baths  on  the  Seine  ;  they  are  huge 
houses  of  two  stories.*  Two  large  chimneys  of  columnar 
form  vomit  forth  torrents  of  smoke  and  thousands  of 
sparks ;  from  a  third  a  whitish  cloud  breaks  forth  with  a 
loud  noise ;  this  is  the  steam-pipe.  In  the  interior  they 
have  that  coquettish  air  that  characterises  American  vessels 
in  general ;  the  cabins  are  showily  furnished,  and  make  a 
very  pretty  appearance.  The  little  green  blinds  and  the 
snugly  fitted  windows,  pleasingly  contrasting  with  the 
white  walls,  would  have  made  Jean-Jacques  sigh  with 
envy. 

The  more  ordinary  capacity  is  from  200  to  300  tons,  but 
many  of  them  measure  from  500  to  600 ;  their  length 
varies  from  100  to  150  feet.  Notwithstanding  their  dimen- 
sions and  the  elegance  with  which  they  are  fitted  up,  they 
cost  but  little,  the  largest  boats  being  built  for  about  40,000 
dollars,  including  their  engines  and  furniture.f  A  very 
nice  boat  100  feet  long,  of  the  legal  measurement  of  100 
tons  but  carrying  150,  only  costs  from  7,000  to  8,000 
dollars.  It  is  estimated  that  the  large  boats  cost  about  100 
dollars  a  ton,  legal  measurement,  and  the  small  ones,  80 
dollars.  But  if  these  elegant  craft  cost  little,  they  do  not 


*  The  Homer,  a  noted  boat  built  by  Mr  Beckwith  of  Louisville,  one  of 
the  most  skilful  builders  in  the  West,  has  a  third  story. 

t  A  boat  of  the  same  dimensions  would  cost  nearly  100,000  dollars  in 
France  ;  this  is  owing  to  the  low  price  of  the  timber,  the  coarseness  of  the 
steam-engines,  which,  on  account  of  the  cheapness  of  fuel,  there  would  be 
no  advantage  in  making  with  more  nicety,  and  the  skill  of  the  mechanics ; 
the  Americans  excel  in  working  in  wood. 

28 


218  LETTER  XX. 

last  long  ;  whatever  care  is  taken  in  the  choice  of  mate- 
rials and  for  the  preservation  ef  the  boat,  it  is  rare  that  they 
wear  more  than  four  or  five  years.  An  old  captain,  lately 
giving  me  an  account  of  a  boat  about  the  construction  of 
which  he  had  taken  great  pains,  told  me,  with  a  deep  sigh, 
that  "she  died  at  three  years."  The  magnificent  vegeta- 
tion of  the  West,  those  thrifty,  tall,  straight  trees,  by  the 
side  of  which  our  European  oaks  would  appear  like  dwarfs, 
growing  rapidly  on  the  thick  layer  of  soil  deposited  by 
the  great  rivers  of  the  West  in  the  diluvian  period  of 
geologists,  last  just  in  proportion  to  the  time  occupied  by 
their  growth.  And  in  this  case,  as  in  regard  to  human 
glory  and  the  splendour  of  empires,  the  rule  holds  good, 
that  time  respects  only  what  he  has  himself  founded. 

The  number  of  passengers  which  these  boats  carry,  is 
very  considerable ;  they  are  almost  always  crowded,  al- 
though there  are  some  which  have  two  hundred  beds.  I 
have  myself  been  in  one  of  these  boats  which  could  ac- 
commodate only  30  cabin  passengers,  with  72.  A  river 
voyage  was  formerly  equivalent  to  an  Argonautic  expedi- 
tion, at  present  it  is  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  the  world. 
The  rate  of  fare  is  low ;  you  go  from  Pittsburg  to  New 
Orleans  for  50  dollars,  all  found,  and  from  Louisville  to 
New  Orleans  for  25  dollars.  It  is  still  lower  for  the  boat- 
men, who  run  down  the  river  in  flat  boats  and  return  by 
the  steamers ;  there  are  sometimes  500  or  600  of  them  in 
a  separate  part  of  the  boat,  where  they  have  a  shelter,  a 
berth,  and  fire,  and  pay  from  4  to  6  dollars  for  the  passage 
from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville  :  they  are,  however,  obliged 
to  help  take  in  wood.  The  rapidity  with  which  these 
men  return,  has  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  extension  of 
the  commerce  of  the  West :  they  can  now  make  three  or 
four  trips  a  year  instead  of  one,  an  important  consideration 
in  a  country  where  there  is  a  deficiency  of  hands.  On 
the  downward  voyage,  their  place  is  occupied  by  horses 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  219 

and  cattle,  which  are  sent  to  the  South  for  sale,  and  by 
slaves,  human  cattle  destined  to  enrich  the  soil  of  the 
South  with  their  sweat,  to  supply  the  loss  of  hands  on  the 
sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana,  or  to  make  the  fortune  of 
some  cotton  planters.  Virginia  is  the  principal  seat  of  this 
traffic,  "  the  native  land  of  Washington,  Jefferson  and 
Madison,  having  become,"  as  one  of  her  sons  sorrowfully 
observed  to  me,  "the  Guinea  of  the  United  States." 

Excellent  as  these  boats  are,  great  as  is  the  service  they 
render  America,  when  the  first  feeling  of  curiosity  is  once 
satisfied,  a  long  confinement  in  one  of  them  has  little  that 
is  attractive  for  a  person  of  a  cultivated -mind  and  refined 
manners.  There  are  few  Europeans  of  the  polished  classes 
of  society,  and  even  few  Americans  of  the  higher  class  in 
the  Eastern  cities,  who,  on  escaping  from  one  of  these 
floating  barracks,  would  not  feel  disposed,  under  the  first 
impulse  of  ill  humour,  to  attest  the  correctness  of  Mrs 
Trollope's  views  of  western  society.  There  is  in  .  the 
West  a  real  equality,  not  merely  an  equality  to  talk  about, 
an  equality  on  paper ;  everybody  that  has  on  a  decent  coat 
is  a  gentleman  :  every  gentleman  is  as  good  as  any  other, 
and  does  not  conceive  that  he  should  incommode  himself 
to.  oblige  his  equal.  He  is  occupied  entirely  with  himself, 
and  cares  nothing  for  others  ;  he  expects  no  attention  from 
his  neighbour,  and  does  not  suspect  that  his  neighbour  can 
desire  any  from  him.  In  this  rudeness,  however,  there  is 
not  a  grain  of  malice  ;  there  is  on  the  contrary  an  appear- 
ance of  good  humour  that  disarms  you.  The  man  of  the 
West  is  rude,  but  not  sullen  or  quarrelsome.  He  is  sensi- 
tive, proud  of  himself,  proud  of  his  country,  and  he  is  so 
to  excess,  but  without  silliness  or  affectation.  Remove 
the  veil  of  vanity  in  which  he  wraps  himself,  and  you 
will  find  him  ready  to  oblige  you  and  even  generous.  He 
is  a  great  calculator,  and  yet  he  is  not  cold,  and  he  is  capa- 
ble of  enthusiasm.  He  loves  money  passionately,  yet  he 


220  LETTER  XX. 

is  not  avaricious ;  he  is  often  prodigal.  He  is  rough  be- 
cause he  has  not  had  time  to  soften  his  voice,  and  cultivate 
the  graces  of  manner.  But  if  he  appears  ill-bred,  it  is  not 
from  choice,  for  he  aspires  to  be  considered  a  man  of  breed- 
ing ;  but  he  has  been  obliged  to  occupy  himself  much 
more  with  the  cultivation  of  the  earth,  than  of  himself. 
It  is  perfectly  natural  that  the  first  generation  in  the  West 
should  bear  the  impress  of  the  severe  labours  it  has  so 
energetically  and  perseveringly  pursued.  If  these  reflec- 
tions, however,  are  consoling  for  the  future,  they  cannot 
give  to  a  life  aboard  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  steamboats  any 
charms  for  him  who  sets  value  on  amiable  and  engaging 
manners. 

Besides,  the  voyage  on  the  Mississippi  is  more  dangerous 
than  a  passage  across  the  ocean ;  I  do  not  mean  merely 
from  the  United  States  to  Europe,  but  from  Europe  to 
China.  In  the  former,  you  are  exposed  to  the  risk  of  ex- 
plosions, and  of  fire,  and  in  ascending,  to  that  of  running 
against  snags  and  planters.  Then  there  is  the  danger  of 
your  boat  falling  afoul  of  another,  running  in  an  opposite 
direction,  in  a  fog,  to  say  nothing  of  the  inconvenience  of 
getting  aground  on  sand-bars.  Add  to  these  things  the 
monotonous  aspect  of  the  country  on  the  river,  the  soli- 
tude of  its  flat  and  muddy  banks,  the  filthy  appearance  of 
its  yellow  and  turbid  waters,  the  strange  habits  of  most  of 
the  travellers  crowded  into  the  same  cage  with  yourself, 
and  you  may  conceive,  that,  in  course  of  time,  such  a 
situation  becomes  extremely  unpleasant.  The  Louisiana 
planters,  therefore,  who  go  North  in  the  hot  season  in 
search  of  a  fresher  and  purer  air  than  that  of  New  Orleans, 
make  their  annual  migrations  by  sea,  aboard  the  fine 
packet-ships,  which  run  regularly  between  that  city  and 
New  York.  Explosions  of  the  boilers  are  frequent,  either 
on  account  of  the  ignorance  and  want  of  skill  of  the  engi- 
neers, or  on  account  of  the  defective  nature  of  the  boilers 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  221 

themselves,  and  they  are  always  attended  with  serious 
injury,  because  the  boats  are  so  much  crowded  with  pas- 
sengers. A  few  days  ago,  sixty  persons  were  killed  and 
wounded  aboard  a  single  boat,  but  these  accidents  do  not 
occur  in  well  managed  boats,  in  which  no  unseasonable 
economy  has  been  practised  in  the  purchase  of  the 
machinery  and  the  wages  of  the  engineers.*  Some 
law  containing  provisions  similar  to  those  in  force  in 
France,  is  required  here,  but  in  order  to  be  practicable,  it 
should  be  made  to  apply  to  the  whole  Valley,  which  would 
only  be  the  case  with  an  act  of  Congress.  Public  opinion, 
however,  would  not  permit  Congress  to  meddle  with  the 
matter,  and  the  cry  of  Federal  encroachment  on  State 
rights  would  be  raised  at  once.  One  State  only,  Louisiana, 
has  passed  a  law  on  the  subject,  but  it  is  very  defective, 
and  I  do  not  suppose  that  it  is  enforced.  Preventive  mea- 
sures are  what  is  wanted,  inspection  of  the  machinery  and 
licensing  of  competent  engineers,  while  the  law  of  Loui- 
siana only  provides  for  the  punishment  of  the  captain  on 
board  whose  boat  an  accident  happens,  with  a  special  pen- 
alty in  case  he  should  be  engaged  in  any  game  of  hazard, 
at  the  time  of  the  accident. 

There  have  been  many  accidents  by  fire  in  the  steamers, 
and  many  persons  have  perished  in  this  way,  although  the 
river  is  not  very  wide.  The  Brandywine  was  burnt  near 
Memphis,  in  1832,  and  every  soul  on  board,  to  the  number 
of  110,  was  lost.  The  Americans  show  a  singular  indif- 
ference in  regard  to  fires,  not  only  in  the  steamboats,  but 
also  in  their  houses  ;  they  smoke  without  the  least  concern 
in  the  midst  of  the  half  open  cotton-bales,  with  which  a 
boat  is  loaded ;  they  ship  gunpowder  with  no  more  pre- 
caution than  if  it  were  so  much  maize  or  salt  pork,  and 

*  A  good  engineer  gets  about  100  dollars  a  month  in  the  large  boats,  and 
there  are  two  to  a  boat.  In  France  the  wages  of  the  same  man  would  be 
from  20  to  25  dollars  a  month. 


222  LETTER  XX. 

leave  objects  packed  up  in  straw  right  in  the  torrent  of 
sparks  that  issue  from  the  chimneys.  The  accidents 
caused  by  the  trunks  of  trees  in  the  bed  of  the  rirer,  called 
logs,  snags,  sawyers,  or  planters,  according  to  their  position, 
have  been  very  numerous ;  attempts  have  been  made  to 
prevent  this  class  of  disasters,  by  strengthening  the  bows, 
and  by  bulk-heads  which  double  the  hull  in  that  part. 
The  Federal  government  has  two  snag-boats,  constructed 
with  great  ingenuity,  which  are  employed  in  removing 
these  obstructions  from  the  rivers,  but  the  bordering  States, 
whose  taxes  are  very  light,  have  contributed  nothing  to- 
wards these  objects.  The  machinery  of  the  Heliopolis  and 
Archimedes,  contrived  by  Captain  Shreve,  has  done  much 
toward  clearing  the  channel,  but  there  is  still  much  to  be 
done. 

The  chances  of  accident  might  be  diminished  in  vari- 
ous ways,  by  well-directed  measures,  and  at  a  moderate 
expense.  The  character  of  the  river  is  now  well  under- 
stood, and  there  are  many  engineers  in  the  United  States, 
who  can  manage  the  Great  Father  of  Waters.  Unluckily 
the  Federal  government,  which  does  not  know  what  to  do 
with  its  money,  (for  it  has  now  on  hand  a  surplus  of  eleven 
millions,)  is  checked  by  a  doctrine  with  which,  one  cannot 
tell  why,  the  democratic  party  have  become  possessed,  and 
which  forbids  the  general  government  from  engaging  in 
public  works  within  the  limits  of  the  individual  States. 
Thus,  although  the  whole  Union  is  interested  in  the  im- 
provement of  the  navigation  of  the  western  rivers,  the 
Federal  government  does  not  venture  to  undertake  it  with 
energy  and  on  a  liberal  scale.  General  Jackson's  prede- 
cessor, Mr  Adams,  was  a  warm  friend  to  the  action  of  the 
government  in  internal  improvements.  He  thought,  like 
Mr  Clay  and  other  men  of  superior  abilities,  that  the  pro- 
gress of  the  young  States  of  the  West  would  be  very 
much  accelerated,  to  the  advantage  of  the  whole  Union, 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  223 

if  the  central  government  would  undertake  to  execute,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  a  system  of  public  works  of  general 
interest.  But  one  of  the  watchwords  of  the  opponents 
of  Mr  Adams  was,  No  Internal  Improvements  !  and  the 
very  States  which  would  have  been  most  immediately 
benefited  by  it,  rallied  to  this  cry.  So  utterly  can  party 
spirit  blind  the  most  clear-sighted  of  men  ! 

If  accidents  of  so  serious  a  nature  succeeded  each  other 
with  such  frequency  in  Europe,  there  would  be  a  general 
outcry.  The  police  and  the  legislative  power  would  vie 
with  each  other  in  their  efforts  to  put  a  stop  to  them. 
Steamboats  would  become  the  terror  of  travellers,  the 
public  would  abandon  them,  and  they  would  be  left 
deserted  on  the  rivers.  The  effect  would  be  the  same,  in 
a  degree,  around  the  large  eastern  cities,  because  society 
there  is  beginning  to  be  regularly  organised,  and  a  man's 
life  counts  for  something.  In  the  West,  the  flood  of  emi- 
grants, descending  from  the  Alleghanies,  rolls  swelling  and 
eddying  over  the  plains,  sweeping  before  it  the  Indian,  the 
buffalo,  and  the  bear.  At  its  approach  the  gigantic  forests 
bow  themselves  before  it,  as  the  dry  grass  of  the  prairies 
disappears  before  the  flames.  It  is  for  civilisation,  what 
the  hosts  of  Ghengis  Khan  and  Attila  were  for  barbarism  ; 
it  is  an  invading  army,  and  its  law  is  the  law  of  armies. 
The  mass  is  everything,  the  individual  nothing.  Wo  to 
him  who  trips  and  falls !  he  is  trampled  down  and  crushed 
under  foot.  Wo  to  him  who  finds  himself  on  the  edge  of 
a  precipice  !  The  impatient  crowd,  eager  to  push  forward, 
throngs  him,  forces  him  over,  and  he  is  at  once  forgotten, 
without  even  a  half-suppressed  sigh  for  his  funeral  oration. 
Help  yourself!  is  the  watchword.  The  life  of  the  gen- 
uine American  is  the  soldier's  life  ;  like  the  soldier  he  is 
encamped,  and  that,  in  a  flying  camp,  here  to-day,  fifteen 
hundred  miles  off  in  a  month.  It  is  a  life  of  vigilance 
and  strong  excitement ;  as  in  a  camp,  quarrels  are  settled 


224  LETTER  XX. 

in  the  west,  summarily  and  on  the  spot,  by  a  duel  fought 
with  rifles,  or  knives,  or  with  pistols  at  arm's  length. 
It  is  a  life  of  sudden  vicissitudes,  of  successes  and  re- 
verses ;  destitute  to-day,  rich  to-morrow,  and  poor  the  day 
after,  the  individual  is  blown  about  with  every  wind  of 
speculation,  but  the  country  goes  on  increasing  in  wealth 
and  resources.  Like  the  soldier,  the  American  of  the 
West  takes  for  his  motto,  Victory  or  death  !  But  to  him,  vic- 
tory is  to  make  money,  to  get  the  dollars,  to  make  a  for- 
tune out  of  nothing,  to  buy  lots  at  Chicago,  Cleveland,  or 
St.  Louis,  and  sell  them  a  year  afterward  at  an  advance 
of  1000  per  cent. ;  to  carry  cotton  to  New  Orleans  when 
it  is  worth  20  cents  a  pound.  So  much  the  worse  for  the 
conquered  ;  so  much  the  worse  for  those  who  perish  in  the 
steamboats  !  The  essential  point  is  not  to  save  some  in- 
dividuals or  even  some  hundreds  ;  but,  in  respect  to  steam- 
ers, that  they  should  be  numerous  ;  staunch  or  not,  well 
commanded  or  not,  it  matters  little,  if  they  move  at  a 
rapid  rate,  and  are  navigated  at  little  expense.  The  cir- 
culation of  steamboats  is  as  necessary  to  the  West,  as  that 
of  the  blood  is  to  the  human  system.  The  West  will 
beware  of  checking  and  fettering  it  by  regulations  and 
restrictions  of  any  sort.  The  time  is  not  yet  come,  but  it 
will  come  hereafter. 

There  are  certain  feelings  in  the  human  heart  that  must 
show  themselves  in  some  form  or  another,  and  if  repressed 
in  one  point,  will  break  out  in  another.  Respect  for  the 
depositaries  of  authority,  which  until  the  time  of  our  rev- 
olution, had  so  firmly  cemented  European  society  together, 
has  constantly  been  on  the  wane  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  and  in  the  West  is  totally  obscured.  There  the 
authorities,  for  so  they  are  called,  have  as  little  power  as 
pay  ;  there  are  governors  who  govern  nothing,  judges  who 
are  very  liable  to  be  brought  to  judgment  themselves. 
The  chief  magistrate  is  pompously  styled  in  the  constitu- 


WESTERN  STEAMBOATS.  225 

tions  of  these  new  States  commander-in-chief  of  the  army 
and  navy  of  the  State.  Pure  mockery  !  for  it  is  at  the 
same  time  provided,  except  in  time  of  war ;  and  even  in 
time  of  peace,  he  has  hardly  the  power  of  appointing  a 
corporal.  Yet  the  feeling  of  discipline  and  obedience 
subsists,  and  it  is  instinctively  transferred  to  those  men 
who  are  in  fact  the  generals  of  the  great  migration.  If 
little  concern  is  felt  in  regard  to  the  Governor  of  the  State, 
every  body  is  docile  and  obedient  to  the  innkeeper,  the 
driver  of  the  coach,  and  the  captain  of  the  steamboat ; 
with  them  no  one  ventures  to  maintain  the  principles  of 
self-government.  All  rise,  breakfast,  dine,  sup,  when  the 
landlord  or  his  lieutenant-general,  the  bar-keeper,  thinks 
fit  to  ring  the  bell,  or  beat  the  gong ;  it  is  just  as  it  is  in  a 
camp.  They  eat  what  is  placed  before  them,  without 
ever  allowing  themselves  to  make  any  remark  about  it. 
They  stop  at  the  pleasure  of  the  driver  and  the  captain, 
without  showing  the  least  symptom  of  impatience  ;  they 
allow  themselves  to  be  overturned  and  their  ribs  to  be 
broken  by  the  one.  they  suifer  themselves  to  be  drowned 
or  burnt  up  by  the  other,  without  uttering  a  complaint  or 
a  reproach ;  the  discipline  is  even  more  complete  than  in 
the  camp.  It  has  been  said  that  the  life  of  founders  of 
empires,  from  the  times  of  Romulus  to  that  of  the  buca- 
neers,  consists  of  a  mixture  of  absolute  independence  and 
passive  obedience.  The  society  which  is  now  founding 
itself  in  the  West,  has  not  escaped  the  common  law. 

This  part  of  the  United  States,  which  was  a  mere  wil- 
derness at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  on  which  no  one  spent  a  thought,  when  the  capital 
was  fixed  at  Washington,  will  be  the  most  powerful  of 
the  three  great  sections  of  the  Union,  at  the  taking  of 
the  next  census.  Before  long,  it  will  singly  be  superior 
to  the  two  others  taken  together,  it  will  have  the  majority 
in  Congress,  it  will  govern  the  New  World.  Already 
29 


226  LETTER  XX. 

the  old  division  into  North  and  South  is  becoming  of 
secondary  moment,  and  the  great  division  of  the  Union 
will  soon  be  into  the  East  and  the  West ;  the  present 
President  is  a  man  of  the  West.  The  democratic  party 
have  just  held  a  convention  at  Baltimore  to  agree  upon  the 
selection  of  candidates  for  the  next  presidential  election. 
Mr  Van  Buren,  who  is  from  the  East,  has  been  chosen, 
but  although  he  had  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  conven- 
tion, he  seems  about  to  find  a  formidable  competitor  in  the 
bosom  of  his  own  party,  in  the  person  of  Mr  White  of 
Tennessee.  On  the  subject  of  the  Vice-Presidency  there 
was  an  animated  debate  in  the  convention  itself;  some 
proposed  Mr  Rives  from  the  South,  others  Mr  Johnson 
from  the  West.  Mr  Rives  passes  for  a  man  in  every  res- 
pect superior  to  his  antagonist,  his  diplomatic  services  have 
been  highly  esteemed  by  his  countrymen.  Mr  Johnson 
is  honest,  indeed,  but  there  is  great  doubt,  or  rather  there 
is  no  doubt  at  all,  about  his  abilities.  The  only  claim  set 
up  by  his  friends  is,  a  strong  suspicion  that  he  killed 
the  celebrated  Indian  chief  Tecumseh,  in  the  battle  of  the 
Thames.  But  then  Mr  Johnson  is  from  the  West,  and 
he  has  been  preferred  to  his  rival,  even  at  the  risk  of 
offending  Virginia,  whose  influence  in  the  South  is 
acknowledged  to  be  commanding.  Mr  Van  Buren  has 
yielded  to  this  arrangement  or  probably  he  has  concerted 
it,  because  he  would  rather  risk  the  loss  of  the  South  than 
of  the  West.  This,  then,  the  West  is  already  become  ; 
and  when  we  reflect  that  the  only  visible  instrument  of 
this  progress  is  the  steamboat,  we  shall  not  wonder  that 
the  whole  political  system  of  some  men  is  comprised  in 
physical  improvements,  and  the  interests  connected  with 
them. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  227 


LETTER   XXI. 

INTERCOMMUNICATION. 

BUFFALO,  (N.  Y.)  JULY  9,  1835. 

THE  territory  of  the  United  States  consists ;  1.  of  the 
two  great  inland  basins  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  St. 
Lawrence,  which  run,  the  former  from  north  to  south  to- 
wards the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  latter  from  south  to  north 
toward  the  gulf  to  which  it  gives  its  own  name  :  2.  on 
the  eastern  side,  of  a  group  of  smaller  basins,  which  empty 
their  waters  into  the  Atlantic  ocean,  and  of  which  the 
principal  are  those  of  the  rivers  Connecticut,  Hudson, 
Delaware,  Susquehanna,  Potomac,  James,  Roanoke,  Santee, 
Savannah,  and  Alatamaha.  The  Alleghany  Mountains, 
which,  from  their  lying  in  the  direction  of  the  length  of 
the  continent,  are  called  the  back-bone  of  the  United 
States,  form  a  natural  water-shed,  dividing  the  great  inland 
basins  from  the  eastern  group  of  small  basins.  On  the 
west,  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi  are 
bounded  by  the  Mexican  Cordilleras,  which  here  take  the 
name  of  Rocky  Mountains.  At  the  foot  of  this  chain 
spreads  out  a  wide  desert,  bare  of  vegetation,  and  which, 
excepting  some  oases,  can  never,  it  is  said,  be  peopled  by 
man. 

Almost  the  whole  English-American  population  is  as  yet 
on  the  left  of  the  Mississippi.  On  the  right  bank  there  is 
only  one  State,  and  that  one  of  the  least  important  of  the 
confederacy,  and  one  Territory,  that  of  Arkansas,  which 
will  soon  become  one  of  the  members  of  the  Union.* 


*  Arkansas  became  a  State  in  1836.     [It  is  a  strange  oversight  of  the  au- 
thor to  say,  that  Missouri  is  the  only  State  west  of  the  Mississippi,  when 


228  LETTER  xxi. 

The  Alleghany  chain  does  not  reach  a  great  height ;  being 
har  dly  as  lofty  as  the  Vosges,  while  the  Rocky  Mountains 
exceed  in  elevation  the  Pyrenees  and  even  the  Alps. 

The  Alleghany  system,  although  of  no  great  height, 
rises  from  a  very  wide  base,  of  which  the  breadth  is  nearly 
150  miles  by  an  air-line.  Viewed  as  a  whole,  it  consists 
of  a  number  of  cavities  separated  by  as  many  ridges  or 
crests,  and  stretching  with  great  uniformity,  nearly  from 
one  end  of  the  chain  to  the  other,  from  the  shores  of  New 
England,  where  the  mountains  are  washed  by  the  sea,  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  they 
gradually  sink  down.  These  alternations  of  the  ridges 
and  cavities  form  a  series  of  parallel  furrows,  which  may 
be  traced  on  the  surface,  with  some  breaks,  through  a  dis- 
tance of  1200  or  1500  miles.  The  geological  forma- 
tions are  arranged  very  nearly  in  conformity  with  these 
furrows,  through  great  distances ;  there  are,  however,  ex- 
ceptions from  this  rule,  for  sometimes  the  same  layer  is 
seen  to  pass  from  one  furrow  to  another,  always  cutting 
the  former  at  a  very  acute  angle. 

Notwithstanding  this  general  character  of  regularity, 
these  cavities  are  not  hydrographical  basins  or  river  val- 
leys. But  the  rivers,  instead  of  hollowing  out  beds  be- 
tween two  successive  ridges,  and  thus  passing  off  to  the 
sea,  frequently  pass  from  one  furrow  to  another,  breaking 
through  the  weak  points  of  the  ridges.  These  openings 
or  gaps,  as  they  are  here  called,  are  highly  useful  as  routes 
for  roads,  canals,  and  railroads,  enabling  the  engineer,  by 


nearly  the  whole  of  Louisiana  is  on  its  right  bank.  Neither  is  it  correct  to 
say,  that  Missouri  is  one  of  the  least  important  States.  In  point  of  territo- 
rial extent,  geographical  position,  agricultural  resources,  and  mineral  wealth, 
she  is  one  of  the  most  important,  and  even  in  point  of  population,  which  is 
increasing  with  great  rapidity,  is  little  behind  many  of  her  sisters.  The 
Territory  of  Iowa,  established  in  1837,  on  the  north  of  Missouri,  has  now 
about  30,000  inhabitants,  and  is  rapidly  filling  with  settlers. — TRANSL.] 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  229 

following  the  course  of  the  rivers,  to  flank  heights,  which 
it  would  have  been  almost  impossible  to  top.  Of  all  these 
openings  the  most  interesting  is  that  made  by  the  Potomac 
through  the  Blue  Ridge,  at  Harper's  Ferry,  which  Jeffer- 
son, in  his  Virginian  enthusiasm,  said  was  worth  a  voyage 
across  the  Atlantic. 

The  United  States  may  then  be  divided  hydrographi- 
cally  into  two  distinct  regions,  the  one  to  the  east,  the 
other  to  the  west,  of  the  Alleghanies ;  or  into  three, 
as  under :  1.  the  Mississippi  valley  :  2.  the  valley  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  with  the  great  lakes :  3.  the  Atlantic  coast. 
This  vast  country  may  also  be  divided  into  the  North  and 
the  South,  and  it  has  two  commercial  capitals,  New  York 
and  New  Orleans,  which  are,  as  it  were,  the  two  lungs  of 
this  great  body,  the  two  galvanic  poles  of  the  system. 
Between  these  two  divisions,  the  North  and  the  South, 
there  are  radical  differences,  both  in  a  political  and  an  in- 
dustrial point  of  view.  The  social  frame  in  the  South  is 
founded  on  slavery ;  in  the  North,  on  universal  suffrage. 
The  South  is  a  great  cotton-plantation,  yielding  also  some 
subsidiary  articles,  such  as  tobacco,  sugar,  and  rice.  The 
North  acts  as  factor  or  agent  for  the  South,  selling  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  latter,  and  furnishing  her  in  return  with 
those  of  Europe  ;  as  a  sailor,  carrying  her  cotton  beyond 
sea  ;  as  an  artisan,  making  all  her  household  utensils  and 
farming  tools,  her  cotton-gins,  her  sugar-mills,  her  furni- 
ture, wearing  apparel,  and  all  other  articles  of  daily  use, 
and  finding  her  also  in  corn  and  salted  provisions. 

From  these  views  it  appears  that  the  great  public  works 
in  the  United  States  must  have  the  following  objects : 
1.  To  connect  the  Atlantic  coast-region  with  the  region 
beyond  the  Alleghanies ;  that  is,  to  unite  the  rivers  of  the 
former,  such  as  the  Hudson,  the  Susquehanna,  the  Potomac, 
the  James,  or  its  bays,  such  as  the  Delaware  and  the 
Chesapeake,  either  with  the  Mississippi  or  its  tributary  the 


230  LETTER  XXI. 

Ohio,  or  with  the  St.  Lawrence,  or  the  great  lakes 
Erie  and  Ontario,  whose  waters  are  carried  by  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  the  Ocean  :  2.  To  form  communications 
between  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  that  of  the  St.  I*aw- 
rence,  that  is,  between  one  of  the  great  tributaries  of  the 
Mississippi,  such  as  the  Ohio,  the  Illinois,  or  the  W;ibash, 
and  Lake  Erie  or  Lake  Michigan,  which,  of  all  the  /  teat 
lakes  of  the  St.  Lawrence  basin,  reach  the  furthest  south- 
wards. 3.  To  connect  together  the  northern  and  south- 
ern poles  of  the  Union,  New  York  and  New  Orleans. 

Independently  of  these  three  new  systems  of  public 
works,  which  are  in  fact,  in  progress,  and  even  in  part 
completed,  there  are  numerous  secondary  lines,  intended 
to  make  the  access  to  the  centres  of  consumption  more 
easy,  or  to  open  outlets  from  certain  centres  of  production, 
whence  arise  two  new  classes  of  works  ;  the  one  inclu- 
ding the  various  canals  and  railroads,  which,  starting  from 
the  great  cities  as  centres,  radiate  from  them  in  all  direc- 
tions, and  the  other,  comprising  the  similar  works  exe- 
cuted for  the  transportation  of  coal  from  the  coal-regions. 

SECT.  I.   LINES  EXTENDING  ACROSS  THE  ALLEGHANIES. 

The  works  which  have  hitherto  almost  wholly  occu- 
pied, and  still  chiefly  occupy,  the  attention  of  statesmen 
and  business  men  in  the  United  States,  are  those  designed 
to  form  communications  between  the  East  and  the  West. 
There  are  on  the  Atlantic  coast  four  principal  towns, 
which  long  strove  with  each  other  for  the  supremacy ; 
namely,  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore. 
All  four  aimed  to  secure  the  command  of  the  commerce  of 
the  new  States  which  are  springing  up  in  the  fertile  re- 
gions of  the  West, ;  and  they  have  sustained  the  struggle 
with  different  degrees  of  success,  but  always  with  a  rare 
spirit  of  intelligence.  They  have  not,  however,  been 
equally  favoured  in  respect  to  natural  advantages.  13oston 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  231 

is  too  far  north ;  she  has  no  river  which  permits  her  to 
stretch  her  arms  far  toward  the  West,  and  she  is  surround- 
ed l»y  a  hilly  country,  which  throws  great  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  rapid  communication,  and  makes  all  works  design- 
ed to  promote  it  expensive.  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore 
are  shut  up  by  ice  almost  every  winter,  and  this  obstruc- 
tion is,  on  the  part  of  the  latter,*  a  drawback  from  the 
other  advantages  of  her  position,  her  greater  nearness  to 
the  Ohio,  her  more  central  latitude,  and  the  beauty  of  her 
bay.  which  is  above  250  miles  in  length,  and  receives 
numberless  streams,  as  the  Susquehanna,  Potomac,  Patux- 
ent,  Rappahannock,  &c.  Philadelphia  is  badly  placed ; 
Penn  was  led  astray  by  the  beauty  of  the  Schuylkill  and 
the  Delaware  ;  he  thought  that  the  broad  plain  spread  out 
between  their  waters  to  the  width  of  nearly  three  miles, 
would  afford  an  admirable  site  for  a  city,  whose  streets 
should  be  run  with  regularity,  and  whose  warehouses, 
easy  of  access,  would  permit  thousands  of  vessels  to  load 
and  unload  at  once.  He  forgot  to  secure  for  his  city  a 
great  hyurographical  basin,  capable  of  consuming  the 
merchandise  which  it  should  import,  and  of  sending  it  in 
return  the  products  of  its  own  labour,  and  he  neglected  to 
make  an  examination  of  the  Delaware,  which  he  took  for 
a  groat  river,  but  which,  unluckily  is  not  so.  If  he  had 
founded  the  city  of  Brotherly  Love  on  the  banks  of  the 
Susquehanna,  it  might  have  maintained  a  long  struggle 
against  New  York. 

Now  York  is,  then,  the  queen  of  the  Atlantic  coast. 
This  city  stands  on  a  long,  narrow  island,  between  two 
rivers  (the  North  River  and  the  East  River) ;  ships  of  any 
burden  and  in  any  numbers  may  lie  at  the  wharves  ;  the 
harbour  is  very  rarely  closed  by  ice  ;  it  can  be  entered  by 
small  vessels  with  all  winds,  and  by  the  largest  ships  at 

*  This  difficulty  is  almost  wholly,  if  not  quite,  remedied  by  jce-boats. 


232  LETTER  XXI. 

all  times  except  when  the  wind  is  from  the  northwest. 
New  York  has  beside  the  invaluable  advantage  of  stand- 
ing upon  a  river  for  which  some  great  flood  has  dug  out  a 
bed  through  the  primitive  mountains,  uniformly  deep, 
without  rocks,  without  rapids,  almost  without  a  slope,  and 
cutting  through  the  most  solid  mass  of  the  Alleghanies  at 
right  angles.  The  tide,  slight  as  it  is  on  this  coast,  flows 
up  the  Hudson  to  Troy,  160  miles  from  its  mouth  ;  and 
such  is  the  nature  of  its  bed,  that  whale-ships  are  fitted 
out  at  Poughkeepsie  and  Hudson,  of  which  the  former  is 
75  and  the  latter  116  miles  above  New  York,  and  that, 
except  in  the  lowest  stage  of  the  water,  vessels  of  9  feet 
draft  can  go  up  to  Albany  and  Troy,  in  any  tide. 

New  York  possesses  in  addition  great  advantages  in  res- 
pect to  the  character  of  its  population.  Originally  a  Dutch 
colony,  conquered  by  the  English,  and  lying  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  New  England,  she  presents  a  mixture  of  the 
solid  qualities  of  the  Saxon  race,  of  the  Dutch  phlegm, 
and  the  enterprising  shrewdness  of  the  Puritans.  This 
mixed  breed  understands  admirably  hww  to  turn  to  ac- 
count all  the  advantages  which  nature  has  bestowed  on 
the  city. 

Hardly  was  the  war  of  independence  at  an  end,  when 
the  great  men  whose  patriotism  and  courage  had  brought 
it  to  a  happy  close,  filled  with  ideas  of  the  wealth  yet 
buried  in  the  bosom  of  the  then  uninhabited  West,  began  to 
form  plans  for  rendering  it  accessible  by  canals.  If  it  is 
true,  that  Prussia,  in  the  time  of  Voltaire,  resembled  two 
garters  stretched  out  over  Germany,  the  ynited  States  in 
the  time  of  Washington  and  Franklin,  and  it  is  only  fifty 
years  since,  might  be  likened  to  a  narrow  riband  thrown 
upon  the  sandy- shore  of  the  Atlantic.  Washington  at 
that  time  projected  the  canal  which  has  since  been  begun 
according  to  the  plans  of  Gen.  Bernard^  and  which  seeks 
the  West  by  following  up  the  Potomac  ;  but  from  want  of 


.,- 

INTERCOMMUNICATION.  233 

capital  and  experienced  engineers,  what  in  our  day  has 
become  a  long  and  fine  canal,  was  then  merely  a  series  of 
side-cuts  around  the  Little  Falls  and  Great  Falls  of  the 
Potomac.  At  the  same  time,  the  Pennsylvanians  made 
some  unsuccessful  efforts  and  spent  considerable  sums,  in 
ineffectual  attempts  to  render  the  Schuylkill  navigable, 
and  to  connect  it  with  the  Susquehanna.  In  the  State  of 
New  York,  some  short  cuts,  some  locks  and  sluices,  were 
then  the  only  prelude  to  greater  schemes.*  The  works 
undertaken  at  that  time  and  during  the  fifteen  first  years  of 
the  present  century  could  not  be  completed,  or  failed  in 
the  expected  results.  One  work  only  was  successfully 
executed,  the  Middlesex  Canal,  which  extends  from  Bos- 
ton to  the  River  Merrimack  at  Chelmsford,  a  distance  of 
27  miles.f 

The  war  of  1812  found  the  United  States  without 
canals,  and  almost  without  good  roads ;  their  only  means 
of  intercourse  were  the  sea,  their  bays,  and  the  rivers  that 
flow  into  them.  Once  blockaded  by  the  English  fleets, 
not  only  could  they  hold  no  communication  with  Europe 
and  India,  but  they  could  not  keep  up  an  intercourse 
among  themselves,  between  State  and  State,  and  between 
city  and  city,  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia  for  in- 
stance. Their  commerce  was  annihilated,  and  the  sources 
of  their  capital  dried  up.  Bankruptcy  smote  them  like  a 
destroying  angel,  sparing  not  a  family. 

FIRST  LINE.     ERIE  CANAL. 
The  lesson  was  hard,  but  it  was  not  lost.     The  Ameri- 

*  In  1792  the  New  York  legislature  incorporated  two  companies,  the 
Western  and  the  Northern  Inland  Lock  Navigation  companies,  which,  how- 
ever, did  nothing  of  importance,  the  former  with  authority  to  connect  the 
Hudson  by  the  Mohawk  with  Seneca  Lake  and  Lake  Ontario,  the  latter  to 
form  a  junction  between  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Champlain. 

t  By  Mr  Baldwin,  father  of  the  late  Loammi  Baldwin,  who  constructed 
the  dry  docks  at  Charlestown  and  Gosport. 

30 


234  LETTER  XXI. 

cans,  to  do  them  justice,  know  how  to  profit  by  the  teach- 
ings of  Providence,  especially  if  they  pay  dear  for  them. 
The  project  of  a  canal  between  New  York  and  Lake  Erie, 
which  had  already  been  discussed  before  the  war,  was 
eagerly  taken  up  again  after  the  peace.  De  Witt  Clinton, 
a  statesman  whose  memory  will  be  ever  hallowed  in  the 
United  States,  succeeded  in  inspiring  his  countrymen  with 
his  own  noble  confidence  in  his  country's  great  destiny, 
and  the  first  stroke  of  the  spade  was  made  on  the  4th  of 
July,  1817.  In  spite  of  the  evil  forebodings  of  men  dis- 
tinguished for  their  sagacity  and  public  services  ;  in  spite 
of  the  opinion  of  the  venerated  patriarch  of  democracy, 
of  Jefferson  himself,  who  declared  it  necessary  to  wait  a 
century  longer  before  undertaking  such  a  work  ;  in  spite 
of  the  remonstrances  of  the  illustrious  Madison,  who  wrote 
that  it  would  be  an  act  of  folly  on  the  part  of  the  State 
of  New  York  to  attempt,  with  its  own  resources  only,  the 
execution  of  a  work  for  which  all  the  wealth  of  the  Union 
would  be  insufficient ;  notwithstanding  all  opposition, 
this  State,  which  did  not  then  contain  a  population  of 
1,300,000  inhabitants,  began  a  canal  428  miles  in  length, 
and  in  eight  years  it  had  completed  it  at  a  cost  of  8,400,000 
dollars.  Since  that  time  it  has  continued  to  add  nume- 
rous branches,  covering  almost  every  part  of  the  State,  as 
with  net- work.  In  1836,  the  State  had  completed  656 
miles  of  canal  including  slack-water  navigation,  at  the 
expense  of  11,962,712  dollars,  or  18,235  dollars  per 
mile.* 

The  results  of  this  work  have  surpassed  all   expecta- 
tions ;  it  opened  an  outlet  for  the  fertile  districts  of   the 

*  The  official  statements  of  the  Canal  Board,  Feb.  23, 1837,  are  here  given 
instead  of  those  of  M.  Chevalier.  The  statement  in  the  text  does  not  in- 
clude the  Black  River  Canal  and  the  Genesee  Valley  Canal,  begun  in  1837, 
with  a  total  length  of  168  miles,  exclusive  of  40  miles  of  improved  navi- 
gation in  the  Black  River  ;  estimated  cost,  3,000,000  dollars. — TRANSL. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  235 

western  part  of  the  State,  which  had  before  been  cut  off 
from  a  communication  with  the  sea  and  the  rest  of  the 
world.  The  shores  of  Lake  Erie  and  Ontario  were  at 
once  covered  with  fine  farms  and  nourishing  towns.  The 
stillness  of  the  old  forest  was  broken  by  the  axe  of  New 
York  and  New  England  settlers,  to  the  head  of  Lake 
Michigan.  The  State  of  Ohio,  which  is  washed  by  Lake 
Erie,  and  which  had  hitherto  had  no  connection  with 
the  sea  except  by  the  long  southern  route  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi, had  now  a  short  and  easy  communication  with 
the  Atlantic  by  way  of  New  York.  The  territory  of  Michi- 
gan was  peopled,  and  it  now  contains  100,000  inhabitants, 
and  will  soon  take  its  rank  among  the  States.*  The  trans- 
portation on  the  Erie  Canal  exceeded  400.000  tons  in  1834, 
and  it  must  nearly  reach  500,000  tons  in  1835.  The  annual 
amount  of  tolls  from  the  canals,  and  at  moderate  rates,,  is 
about  one  million  and  a  half  dollars.  The  population  of 
the  city  of  New  York,  increased  in  the  ten  years,  from 
1820  to  1830,  80,000  souls.f  New  York  is  become  the 
third,  if  not  the  second  port  in  the  world,  and  the  most 
populous  city  of  the  western  hemisphere.  The  illustrious 
Clinton  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  success  of  his  plans, 
but  not  to  receive  the  brilliant  reward  which  the  gratitude 
of  his  countrymen  intended  for  him.  He  died,  February 
11,  1828,  at  the  age  of  59  years,  and  but  for  this  prema- 
ture death,  he  would  probably  have  been  chosen  President 
of  the  United  States. 

The  Erie  Canal  is  no  longer  sufficient  for  the  commerce 
which  throngs  it.  In  vain  do  the  lock-masters  attend 
night  and  day  to  the  signal  horn  of  the  boatmen,  and  per- 

*  Michigan  became  a  State  in  1837,  at  which  time  it  had  a  population  of 
175,000  souls.— TRANSL. 

t  The  increase  of  the  population  has  since  been  at  a  still  more  rapid  rate  ; 
from  1830  to  1835,  the  number  of  inhabitants  increased  from  203,000  to 
270,000,  or  including  Brooklyn,  from  218,000  to  294,000.— TRANBL. 


236  LETTER  XXI. 

form  the  process  of  locking  with  a  quickness  that  puts  to 
shame  the  slowness  of  our  own  ;  there  is  no  longer  room 
enough  in  the  canal,  whose  dimensions  however  are  rather 
limited.*  The  impatience  of  commerce,  with  whom  time 
is  money,  is  not  satisfied  with  a  rate  of  speed  about  four- 
fold that  which  is  common  on  our  canals.  Merchandise 
of  all  sorts,  as  well  as  travellers,  flows  in  at  every  point  in 
such  quantities,  that  railroads  have  been  constructed  along 
the  borders  of  the  canal,  to  rival  the  packet-boats  in  the 
transportation  of  passengers  only.  There  is  one  from 
Albany  to  Schenectady,  15  miles  in  length,  which,  though 
not  well  built,  cost  about  550,000  dollars.  A  second, 
which  will  be  finished  in  1836,  runs  from  Schenectady  to 
Utica,  and  is  78  miles  in  length.f  A  third  railroad  is  in 
progress  from  Rochester  to  Buffalo  by  way  of  Batavia  and 
Attica,  about  80  miles  in  length,  and  it  is  probable  that 
before  long  the  line  will  be  completed  from  one  end  of  the 
canal  to  the  other 4 

A  still  greater  undertaking  is  already  in  train ;  a  com- 
pany was  chartered  in  1832,  which  will  begin  next  spring 
the  construction  of  a  railroad  from  New  York  city  to  Lake 
Erie,  through  the  southern  counties  of  the  State ;  on 
account  of  the  circuitous  route  made  necessary  by  the 
uneven  nature  of  the  ground,  the  length  of  this  road  will 

*  It  is  40  feet  wide  on  the  surface  and  4  feet  deep  ;  the  locks  are  95  feet 
leng  and  15  wide.  The  Languedoc  Canal  is  90  feet  wide,  and  6  1-2  feet 
deep,  with  locks  115  feet  long,  36  feet  wide  in  the  centre,  and  18  at  each 
end.  The  English  Canals  are  generally  of  about  the  dimensions  of  the  Erie 
Canal. 

t  The  legislature  incorporated  the  company  on  the  express  condition  that 
they  should  transport  only  travellers  and  their  baggage.  Notwithstanding 
this  provision,  when  the  books  were  opened,  seven  times  the  amount  of  capi- 
tal needed  was  subscribed;  the  sum  required  was  2,000,000  dollars;  the 
amount  of  subscriptions  14,000,000. 

t  Several  links  in  this  chain  between  Auburn  and  Utica  on  one  side,  and 
Rochester  on  the  other,  are  already  completed. — TRANSL. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  237 

be  about  340  miles.*  Meanwhile  the  Canal  Commission- 
ers have  not  slept ;  in  July,  the  Canal  Board,  in  compliance 
with  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  directed  the  construction 
of  a  double  set  of  lift  locks1  on  the  whole  line,  in  order 
that  there  may  be  as  little  delay  as  possible  in  the  passage 
of  boats,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  canal  so  that  the 
width  shall  be  70  feet  and  the  depth  6  feet,  with  a  corres- 
ponding increase  in  the  dimension  of  the  locks  ;  larger 
boats  may  then  be  used  the  speed  may  be  increased,  and 
perhaps  it  will  be  practicable  to  use  steam  tow-boats. 
The  cost  of  this  work  is  estimated  at  about  12,500,000 
dollars. 

Finally,  to  make  herself  more  entirely  mistress  of  the 
commerce  of  the  West,  and  to  penetrate  her  own  territory 
more  completely,  the  State  of  New  York  is  about  to 
commence  a  new  branch  of  the  Erie  canal  (if  we  may  call 
a  work  of  which  the  entire  length  will  be  120  miles,  a 
branch),  which  will  form  an  immediate  connection  with 
the  River  Ohio.  This  canal  is  to  run  from  Rochester,  the 
flourishing  city  of  millers,  following  up  the  course  of  the 
Genesee,  with  a  rise  of  979  feet  to  the  summit  level,  and 
a  fall  of  78  feet  thence  to  Olean,  on  the  River  Alleghany, 
270  miles  from  its  junction  with  the  Monongahelaat  Pitts- 
burg.  The  main  canal  from  Rochester  to  Olean  is  only 
107  miles  in  length,  but  there  is  a  branch  to  Danville. 
The  Alleghany,  in  its  natural  state,  is  navigable  only 
during  a  few  months  in  the  year ;  the  total  distance 
from  New  York  to  Pittsburg  by  this  route  is  800 
miles. 

When  there  could  no  longer  be  a  doubt  of  the  speedy 
completion  of  the  Erie  Canal,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore 

*  In  the  session  of  1836,  the  legislature  authorised  a  loan  of  the  credit  of 
the  State  for  the  sum  of  3,000,000  dollars  to  the  company ;  the  estimated 
cost  of  the  road  is  6,000,000.  This  road  terminates  at  Tappan  Sloat  on  the 
Hudson. 


238  LETTER  XXI. 

felt  that  New  York  was   going  to  become  the  capital  of 
the  Union.     The  spirit  of  competition  aroused  in  them  a 
spirit  of  enterprise.      They  wished  also  to   have  their 
routes  to  the  West ;  but  both  had  great  natural  obstacles 
to   overcome.      By   means   of  the   Hudson,   which   had 
forced  a  passage  through  the  heart  of  the  mountains,  New 
York  was  freed  from  the  greatest  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
effecting   a   communication   between    the  East  and   the 
West,  that  of  topping  the  crest  of  the  Alleghanies.     Be- 
tween Albany,  where  the  Erie  canal  begins,  and  Buffalo, 
where  it  meets   the  lake,  there  are   no  high  mountains. 
Baltimore    could  not   look   for   a  similar   service  to    the 
Patapsco,  nor  Philadelphia   to  the  Delaware  ;  neither  of 
these  pities  can  approach  the  west   by  the  basin  of  the 
great  lakes,   unless  by  a  very   circuitous  route  ;  they  are 
too  far  off.     It  became  necessary  for  them,  therefore,  to 
climb  the  loftiest  heights,  and  thenco  to  descend  to  the 
level  of  the  Ohio  with  their  works. 

SECOND  LINE.     PENNSYLVANIA  CANAL. 

What  is  called  the  Pennsylvania  canal  is  a  long  line  of 
400  miles,  starting  from  Philadelphia,  and  ending  at  Pitts- 
burg  on  the  Ohio.  It  was  begun  simultaneously  with 
several  other  works,  at  the  expense  of  the  state  of  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1826.  It  is  not  entirely  a  canal ;  from  Phila- 
delphia a  railroad  81  miles  in  length,  extends  to  the 
Susquehanna  at  Columbia.  To  the  Columbia  railroad, 
succeeds  a  canal,  172  miles  in  length,  which  ascends  the 
Susquehanna  and  the  Juniata  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains 
at  Holidaysburg.  Thence  the  Portage  railroad  passes 
over  the  mountain  to  Johnstown,  a  distance  of  37  miles, 
by  means  of  several  inclined  planes  constructed  on  a 
grand  scale,  with  an  inclination  sometimes  exceeding  one 
tenth,  which  does  not,  however,  deter  travellers  from  going 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  239 

over  them.*  From  Johnstown  a  second  canal  goes  to 
Pittsburg,  104  miles.  This  route  is  subject  to  the  incon- 
venience of  three  transhipments,  one  at  Columbia  at  the 
end  of  the  railroad  from  Philadelphia,  and  the  others  at  the 
ends  of  the  Portage  railroad,  one  of  these  may  be  avoided 
by  means  of  two  canals  constructed  by  incorporated  com- 
panies, namely,  the  Schuylkill  canal,  which  extends  up 
the  river  of  that  name,  and  the  Union  canal,  which  forms 
a  junction  between  the  upper  Schuylkill  and  the  Susque- 
hanna.  The  distance  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg  by 
this  route  is  435  miles,  or  35  miles  more  than  by  the 
other  route. 

The  Pennsylvania  canal,  begun  in  1826,  was  finished 
in  1834.  The  State  has  connected  with  this  work  a 
general  system  of  canalization,  which  embraces  all  the 
principal  rivers,  and  especially  the  Susquehanna,  with  its 
two  great  branches  (the  North  Branch  and  the  West 
Branch),  and  also  works  preparatory  to  a  canal  connecting 
Pittsburg  with  Lake  Erie,  at  Erie,  a  town  founded  by  our 
Canadian  countrymen,  and  by  them  called  Presqu'ile. 
Pennsylvania  has  executed,  then,  in  all  about  820  miles 
of  canals  and  railroads,  of  which  118  are  railroads,  at  a 
cost  of  about  25,000,000  dollars,  exclusive  of  sums  paid 
for  interest.  Average  cost  per  mile,  35,000  dollars  ;  aver- 
age cost  per  mile,  of  canals,  32,500  ;  average  cost  per 
mile  of  railroads,  48,000. 

This  is  much  more  than  the  cost  of  the  New  York 
works,  although  the  dimensions  of  the  works  are  the  same, 
and  the  natural  difficulties  were  not  greater  in  one  case 
than  in  the  other  ;  it  is  owing  to  bad  management  in 


*  The  maximum  of  inclination  allowed  by  our  Administration  des  Ponts- 
et-Chauss^es  (board  of  public  works)  is  2~<T7Jj  in  the  great  lines  executed  at 
the  expense  of  government,  the  inclination  has  generally  been  kept  below 
Tj-STJ,  which  is  the  maximum  adopted  in  the  fine  railroad  from  London  to 
Birmingham. 


240  LETTER  XXI. 

Pennsylvania.  The  Pennsylvanians  had  no  Clinton  to 
guide  them.  An  unwise  economy,  forced  upon  the 
Canal  Commissioners  by  the  legislature,  prevented  them 
from  securing  the  services  of  able  engineers,  and  for  the 
sake  of  saving  some  thousands  of  dollars  in  salaries,  they 
have  been  obliged  to  spend  millions  in  repairing  what  was 
badly  done,  or  in  doing  badly  what  more  able  hands  would 
have  executed  well  at  less  cost. 

THIRD  LINE.    BALTIMORE  AND  OHIO  RAILROAD. 

Still  less  than  Philadelphia,  could  Baltimore  think  of  a 
continuous  canal  to  the  Ohio.  Wishing  to  avoid  the  tran- 
shipments which  are  necessary  on  the  Pennsylvania  line, 
the  Baltimoreans  decided  on  the  construction  of  a  railroad 
extending  from  their  city  to  Pittsburg  or  Wheeling,  the 
whole  length  of  which  would  be  about  360  miles.  It  is 
now  finished  as  far  as  Harper's  Ferry  on  the  Potomac,  a  dis- 
tance of  80  miles,  and  the  company  seem  to  have  given 
up  the  design  of  carrying  it  further.  It  will  here  be  con- 
nected with  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  of  which  I 
shall  speak  below,  as  the  Columbia  railroad  is  connected 
with  the  Pennsylvania  canal.  It  is  probable,  that,  on 
approaching  the  crest  of  the  Alleghanies,  the  canal  will 
in  turn  give  away  to  a  railroad  across  the  mountains,  and 
thus  the  Maryland  works  will  be  similar  to  the  Penn- 
sylvania line.* 

*  In  1836  the  Maryland  legislature  voted  the  sum  of  8,000,000  dollars  in 
aid  of  public  works,^of  which  3,000,000  were  appropriated  to  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  railroad,  and  3,000,000  to  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  and 
rest  is  divided  between  several  works,  one  of  which  is  intended  to  connect 
Annapolis,  the  capital,  with  the  Potomac.  Baltimore  has  also  subscribed 
3,000,000  dollars  towards  aiding  the  completion  of  the  railroad.  [Virginia 
and  Wheeling  have  also  subscribed  1,000,000  each  for  the  same  object,  and 
so  far  from  being  come  to  a  stand,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  is  now 
pushed  on  with  great  vigour  towards  Cumberland. — TRANSL.] 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  241 

FOURTH  LINE.     CHESAPEAKE  AND  OHIO  CANAL. 

The  plan,  which  had  been  cherished  by  Washington,  of 
making  a  lateral  canal  along  the  Potomac  which  should 
one  day  be  extended  across  the  mountains  to  the  Ohio, 
was  resumed  when  New  York  had  taught  the  country 
that  it  was  now  ripe  for  the  boldest  enterprises  of  this 
kind.  John  Q,uincy  Adams,  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  favoured  the  project  with  all  his  might.  At  that 
time  it  was  not  a  settled  principle,  that  the  Federal  govern- 
ment had  no  right  to  engage  in  internal  improvements. 
The  old  idea,  which  Washington  had  cherished,  of  making 
the  political  capital  of  the  Union  a  great  city,  was  not 
less  to  the  taste  of  Mr  Adams  and  his  friends.  It  was, 
therefore;  resolved  to  undertake  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Canal,  and  a  company  was  incorporated  for  this  purpose. 
Congress  voted  a  subscription  of  1,000,000  dollars  ;  the 
city  of  Washington  without  commerce,  without  manufac- 
tures, with  its  population  of  16,000  souls,  subscribed  the 
same  sum  ;  the  other  little  cities  of  the  Federal  District, 
Georgetown  and  Alexandria,  having  both  together  a  popu- 
lation of  about  10,000,  furnished  a  half  million  ;  Virginia 
contributed  250,000,  and  Maryland  500,000  dollars  ;  and 
600,000  dollars  were  raised  by  individual  subscriptions. 
The  work  was  begun  July  4,  1828.  Next  year,  by  aid  of 
a  loan  of  3,000,000  from  Maryland,  this  great  work  will 
be  carried  to  the  coal-beds  of  Cumberland  at  the  foot  of 
the  mountains ;  the  length  of  this  division  is  185  miles, 
the  estimated  cost  8,500,000  dollars,  or  46,000  dollars  per 
mile.  The  execution  is  on  a  bold  scale,  and  superior  to 
that  of  the  works  before-mentioned  ;  its  dimensions  ex- 
ceed those  generally  adopted  in  the  proportion  of  3  to  2, 
which  gives  a  larger  section  in  the  ratio  of  9  to  4. 
31 


242  LETTER  XXI. 

FIFTH  LINE.     JAMES  RIVER  AND  KANAWHA  COMMUNICATION. 

Virginia,  formerly  the  first  State  in  the  confederacy, 
but  now  fallen  to  the  fourth  in  rank,  and  already  out- 
stripped by  Ohio,  which  was  not  in  being  during  the  war 
of  Independence,  is  at  length  roused  to  action,  and  has 
determined  to  profit  by  the  lessons,  which  have  come  to 
her  from  the  North.  A  company,  whose  means  consist  of 
little  more  than  the  subscriptions  of  the  State  and  of  the 
capital,  Richmond,  is  about  to  open  a  canal  from  the  East 
to  the  West.  James  River,  which  flows  into  Chesapeake 
B&y,  is  navigable  for  vessels  of  200  tons  to  the  foot  of  the 
table-land,  on  which  Richmond  stands  in  so  charming  a 
situation.  On  the  east  of  the  mountains,  the  canal,  start- 
ing from  Richmond,  will  follow  the  course  of  James 
River,  and  on  the  West  it  will  descend  the  Kanawha,  one 
of  the  tributaries  of  the  Ohio,  to  Charleston,  at  the  head 
of  steamboat  navigation.  The  Alleghany  crest  will  be 
passed  by  a  railroad,  150  miles  in  length  ;  the  canal  itself 
will  be  about  250  miles  long. 

South  Carolina,  stirred  up  by  the  example  of  Virginia, 
is  engaged  in  a  great  railroad  from  Charleston  to  Cincin- 
nati on  the  Ohio ;  and  the  surveys  are  at  present  actively 
going  on.  The  people  of  Cincinnati  are  enthusiastically 
interested  in  this  scheme.*  Georgia  is  also  dreaming  of  a 
great  railroad  from  the  Savannah  to  the  Mississippi,  at 
Memphis ;  but  this  project  has  not  assumed  a  substantial 


*  In  1836,  the  construction  of  this  road  has  been  authorised  by  the  legis- 
latures of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina. 
The  surveys  have  been  completed,  the  route  fixed  upon,  and  a  board  organ- 
ised for  pushing  the  work  with  vigour.  Mr  Hayne,  late  a  Senator  in  Con- 
gress, and  since  governor  of  South  Carolina,  and  one  of  the  most  highly 
respected  men  in  the  country,  is  president.  Including  the  two  branches, 
one  to  Louisville,  and  one  to  Maysville,  the  whole  length  of  the  road  will 
be  700  miles  ;  the  estimated  cost  is  11,870,000  dollars. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  243 

shape.  North  Carolina  does  nothing,  and  projects  nothing. 
If  she  ever  becomes  rich,  it  will  not  be  because  she  has 
seized  fortune  by  the  forelock,  but  because  fortune  has 
come  to  her  bedside.* 

SIXTH  LINE.      RICHELIEU  CANAL. 

The  Canadians  are  constructing  a  canal  which  will  form 
another  communication  between  the  East  and  the  West, 
that  is,  between  the  Hudson  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  be- 
tween New  York  and  Quebec.  The  great  fissure,  which 
forms  so  fine  a  bed  for  the  Hudson  between  New  York 
and  Troy,  does  not  end  here,  but  stretches  o,n  towards  the 
north  to  the  St.  Lawrence;  constituting  the  basin  of  Lake 
Champlain,  which  is  a  long  and  .narrow  cavity  in  the 
midst  of  the  mountains,  and  the  bed  of  the  River  Riche- 
lieu. Between  Lake  Champlain  and  the  Hudson,  there  is 
only  a  ridge  54  feet  above  the  level  of  the  former,  and 
134  above  that  of  the  latter.  The  River  Richelieu,  which 
issues  from  the  northern  end  of  the  lake  and  flows  into 
the  St  Lawrence,  is  broken  by  rapids,  and  a  lateral  canal, 
12  miles  in  length,  and  of  sufficient  dimensions  to  receive 

*  [Two  great  works  are  now  actively  pushed  on  in  Georgia,  which  will 
form  another  connection  between  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  Atlantic  ; 
these  are  the  Central  railroad  from  Savannah  to  Decatur,  285  miles,  and  the 
Georgia  railroad  from  Augusta  to  the  same  place,  1GO  miles  in  length  ;  the 
Main  Trunk  of  the  Atlantic  and  Western  railroad  is  the  common  continua- 
tion of  these  two  roads  from  Decatur  to  the  Tennessee,  a  distance  of  120 
miles.  These  works  are  already  in  a  state  of  forwardness,  and  a  third,  the 
Brunswick  and  Florida  railroad,  now  under  survey,  will  extend  from  Bruns- 
wick to  the  head  of  the  Appalachicola,  and  connect  the  southernmost  part  of 
the  western  valley  with  the  Atlantic.  In  North  Carolina,  beside  the  Ra- 
leigh and  Gaston  railroad,  the  railroad  from  the  Roanoke  to  Wilmington  is 
now  nearly  completed.  As  steam-packets  run  from  Wilmington  to  Charles, 
ton,  and  the  Chattahoochee  is  already  connected  with  Montgomery,  which 
stands  at  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the  Alabama,  the  continua- 
tion of  the  Central  railroad  from  Decatur  to  the  Chattahoochee,  a  distance 
of  80  miles,  is  all  that  is  wanted  to  complete  the  communication  between 
Boston  and  New  Orleans  by  railroads  and  steamboats. — TRANSL.] 


244  LETTER  XXI. 

the  lake-craft,  will  be  opened  here  in  the  course  of  a 
year ;  the  cost  will  be  350,000  dollars  ;  the  distance  from 
New  York  to  Quebec  by  the  canals,  rivers,  and  lakes,  is 
540  miles.  The  railroad  from  St.  John,  where  the  rapids 
of  the  Richelieu  begin,  to  Laprairie,  on  the  St.  Lawrence, 
opposite  to  Montreal,  a  distance  of  16  miles,  effects  for 
Montreal  what  the  canal  does  for  Quebec ;  it  cost  about 
160,000  dollars,  or  10,500  dollars  per  mile.  The  distance 
from  Montreal  to  New  York  is  360  miles. 

SECTION  II.    LINES  OF  COMMUNICATION  BETWEEN  THE  MISSISSIPPI 
VALLEY  AND  THAT  OF  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE. 

There  is  no  mountain  chain  between  these  two  val- 
leys ;  the  basin  of  the  great  lakes,  whose  united  waters 
form  the  St.  Lawrence,  is  separated  from  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  only  by  a  spur  of  the  Alleghany  system,  not 
exceeding  450  feet  in  height,  and  sinking  rapidly  down 
toward  the  west,  so  as  to  be  elevated  but  a  few  feet  above 
the  surface  of  Lake  Michigan.  During  the  rainy  season, 
when  the  streams  are  swollen  and  the  marshes  of  the 
water-shed  are  flooded,  our  Canadian  countrymen  were 
wont  to  pass  in  boats  from  Lake  Michigan  into  the  Illinois, 
by  the  Des  Plaines.  The  breadth  of  this  dividing  spur 
is  more  considerable  than  its  height.  It  is  not  a  ridge  or 
crest,  but  rather  a  table-land,  which  imperceptibly  merges 
by  gentle  slopes  into  the  plains  that  surround  it.  Its 
level  summit  is  filled  with  marshes,  and  therefore  offers 
great  facilities  for  feeding  the  canals  which  traverse  it ; 
further  west,  where  it  is  scarcely  higher  than  the  rest  of 
the  country,  it  is  often  as  dry  as  the  surrounding  prairies. 

FIRST  LINE.     OHIO  CANAL. 

Only  one  work  connecting  the  two  valleys  is  as  yet 
completed,  this  is  the  Ohio  canal,  which  traverses  that 
State  from  North  to  South,  extending  from  Portsmouth, 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  245 

on  the  Ohio,  to  the  little  city  of  Cleaveland,  which  has 
sprung  up  on  the  shore  of  the  lake  since  the  canal  was 
made.  It  is  334  miles  in  length,  and  cost  nearly  4,500,000 
dollars,  or  about  13,500  dollars  per  mile.  This  is  low, 
yet  the  locks  are  all  of  hewn  stone  ;  the  ground,  however, 
was  very  favorable.  The  work  was  executed  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  State,  and  was  undertaken  at  the  same  time 
that  Pennsylvania  and  Baltimore,  on  the  traces  of  New 
York,  started  in  the  course  of  internal  improvements. 
This  young  State,  with  a  population  of  farmers,  not  hav- 
ing a  single  engineer  within  her  limits,  and  none  of  whose 
citizens  had  ever  seen  any  other  canal  than  those  of  New 
York,  has  thus,  with  the  aid  of  some  second  rate  engineers 
borrowed  from  that  State,  constructed  a  canal  longer  than 
any  in  France,  with  more  skill  and  intelligence  than  was 
displayed  by  Pennsylvania,  in  spite  of  the  scientific  lights 
of  Philadelphia.  This  farming  population  of  Ohio,  almost 
wholly  of  New  England  origin,  has  a  business  instinct,  a 
practical  shrewdness,  and  a  readiness  to  exercise  all  trades 
without  having  learned  them,  that  would  be  sought  in 
vain  in  the  Anglo-German  population  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  legislators,  under  whose  direction  the  public  works  were 
executed  in  both  States,  were,  as  is  usual  in  the  United 
States,  a  perfect  copy  of  the  mass  of  their  constituents, 
with  all  its  good  and  bad  qualities.  The  Ohio  canal 
commissioners  added  to  a  noble  disinterestedness  an  admi- 
rable good  sense,  and  to  them  is  due  the  greater  part  of 
the  glory  of  having  planned  and  executed  it.  They  were 
farmers  and  lawyers,  who  set  themselves  about  making 
canals,  naturally,  easily,  and  without  even  a  suspicion  that 
in  Europe  no  one  dares  to  undertake  such  a  work  without 
long  preparation  and  scientific  studies.  Now  it  is  no 
longer  an  art  in  that  State  to  plan  and  construct  canals,  but 
a  mere  trade ;  the  science  of  canalling  is  there  become 
quite  an  affair  of  the  common  people.  The  first-comer  in 


246  LETTER  XXI. 

a  bar-roorn  will  explain  to  you,  over  his  glass  of  whiskey, 
how  to  feed  the  summit  level  and  how  to  construct  a  lock. 
All  our  mysteries  in  civil  engineering  are  here  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  public,  very  much  as  the  methods  of 
descriptive  geometry  are  to  be  found  in  the  workshops, 
where  they  had  been  handed  down  by  tradition,  ages  be- 
fore Monge  gave  them  the  sanction  of  theory. 

I  have  before  said  that  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  form 
a  great  triangle,  wholly  comprised  within  the  Mississippi 
valley,  with  the  exception  of  a  narrow  strip  along  the 
lakes,  belonging,  of  course,  to  the  St.  Lawrence  basin. 
The  general  slope  of  the  surface  is  from  north  to  south ; 
the  streams  run  mostly  in  that  direction  ;  this  is  especially 
true  of  the  great  tributaries  of  the  Ohio.  This  arrange- 
ment of  the  secondary  valleys  is  no  less  favourable  to  the 
construction  of  canals  between  the  lakes,  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  on  the  other,  than  the  con- 
figuration and  humidity  of  the  dividing  table-land. 

SECOND  LINE.     MIAMI  CANAL. 

Ohio  has  constructed  another  canal,  which,  starting  from 
Cincinnati  on  the  Ohio,  runs  north  to  Dayton,  and  is  called 
the  Miami  canal.  It  is  65  miles  in  length,  and  cost  nearly 
1,000,000  dollars,  or  15,400  dollars  a  mile.  By  the  aid  of 
a  grant  of  land  from  Congress,  and  the  State's  resources, 
its  prolongation  is  now  in  progress  to  Defiance,  on  the 
river  Maumee,  the  site  of  a  fortress  of  that  name  built  by 
Gen.  Wayne  after  his  celebrated  victory  over  the  Indians. 
The  Maumee,  which  was  called  by  the  French  the 
Miami  of  the  Lakes,  is  one  of  the  principal  tributa- 
ries of  Lake  Erie,  and  is  to  be  canalled  by  the  State. 
The  distance  from  Dayton  to  Defiance  is  125  miles ;  esti- 
mated cost  2,750,000  dollars,  or  22,000  dollars  per  mile. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  247 

THIRD  LINE.     WABASH  AND  ERIE  CANAL. 

Ohio  and  Indiana,  with  the  aid  of  a  grant  of  land*  from 
Congress,  have  undertaken  in  concert  a  canal,  which  will 
connect  the  Wabash,  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Ohio, 
with  the  Maumee.  The  greater  part  of  the  canal  will  be 
parallel  to  the  two  rivers,  or  in  their  beds ;  the  length  of 
the  whole  work  will  be  382  miles,  of  which  195  are  in 
Indiana,  and  87  in  Ohio.  The  greater  portion  of  the 
Indiana  section  lateral  to  the  Wabash  has  been  completed, 
but  Ohio  has  not  yet  been  able  to  commence  her  portion, 
because,  owing  to  an  absurd  system  of  establishing  boun- 
daries, the  mouth  of  the  Maumee,  whose  -whole  course  is 
in  Ohio,  will  fall  within  Michigan.!  Ohio  protests  against 
this  arrangement,  Michigan  stands  firm  to  her  claims ; 
both  sides  have  voted  the  sums  needful  for  war,  and  both 
have  taken  arms ;  hostilities  have  even  been  begun,  bat 
the  interference  of  the  Federal  government  has  led  the 
parties  to  consent  to  an  armistice.  In  this  quarrel,  Ohio 
has  reason  on  her  side,  but  Michigan  appeals  to  the  letter 
of  the  laws  as  favourable  to  her.  It  is  probable  that  in 
creating  Michigan  a  State,  Congress  will  attach  this  strip 
to  Ohio,  to  whom  it  is  so  important. J  In  this  unsettled 

*  These  grants  of  land  are  generally  made  so  that  every  other  section  (of 
six  miles  square)  along  the  line  of  the  work  is  retained  by  Congress,  and 
the  rest  are  given  to  the  State  or  company  constructing  the  canal.  Some- 
times, however,  a  certain  number  of  acres  in  some  other  quarter  is  granted 
outright. 

t  No  one  can  look  at  a  map  of  the  United  States  without  being  struck  by 
the  appearance  of  the  right  lines,  constituting  the  frontiers  of  most  of  the 
States ;  this  method  of  bounding  a  territory  by  meridians  and  parallels  of 
latitude  is  absurd,  since  it  requires  an  infinite  number  of  geodesic  operations, 
which  have  not  been  executed,  and  cannot  be  so  for  a  long  time.  Meridians 
and  parallels  do  very  well  for  the  divisions  of  the  heavens ;  but  for  the 
earth,  there  are  no  suitable  boundaries  but  the  beds  of  rivers,  or  water-sheds 
in  the  mountain  chains. 

t  By  the  act  establishing  the  State  of  Michigan  (1836),  Congress  has  an- 
nexed this  disputed  belt  to  Ohio.  [The  whole  line  of  this  great  work  is 
now  nearly  completed. — TRANSL.] 


248  LETTER  XXI. 

state  of  things,  Ohio  has  suspended  the  execution  of  her 
part  of  a  work,  which  will  give  new  importance  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Maumee. 

FOURTH  LINE.     ILLINOIS  AND  MICHIGAN  CANAL. 

The  project  of  a  canal  from  the  Chicago,  at  the  southern 
end  of  Lake  Michigan,  to  the  head  of  steam  navigation, 
that  is,  to  the  foot  of  the  falls,  in  the  River  Illinois,  has 
long  been  discussed.  It  is  said  to  be  of  very  easy  con- 
struction ;  and  that  by  means  of  a  cut  of  the  maximum 
depth  of  26  feet,  the  summit  level  can  be  reduced  to  the 
level  of  Lake  Michigan,  so  that  the  lake  can  be  used  as  a 
feeder.  It  will  be  96  miles  in  length,  and  will  traverse  a 
level  or  slightly  undulating  country,  bare  of  trees,  and 
still  known  by  the  name  given  it  by  the  French  Canadians, 
Prairie.  It  is  proposed  to  construct  this  canal  of  larger 
dimensions  than  is  common  in  the  United  States,  so  as  to 
make  it  navigable  by  the  lake-craft  and  steamboats.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  useful  works  ever  undertaken  in  the 
world.* 

FIFTH  LINE.     WESTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  CANAL. 

The  canal  which  has  been  commenced  by  Pennsylvania 
between  the  Ohio  and  the  town  of  Erie,  112  miles  in 
length,  and  for  feeding  which  extensive  works  have  al- 
ready been  constructed  around  Lake  Conneaut,  will  make 
another  and  a  short  line  of  water  communication  between 
the  basins  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  St.  Lawrence. 

*  The  work  was  begun  on  the  canal,  July  4,  183G  ;  it  is  six  feet  deep,  and 
CO  feet  wide  at  top ;  estimated  cost  8,654,300  dollars.  [The  progress  of 
population  in  that  region  within  the  last  two  years  has  given  rise  to  new 
and  very  important  projects.  One  of  these  is  a  canal  connecting  the  Rock 
River  with  Lake  Michigan,  at  Milwaukie,  and  the  other  is  the  junction  of 
the  Wisconsin  with  the  Fox  River  of  Green  Bay,  thus  adding  two  links  to  the 
chain  of  communication  between  the  Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence  valleys. 
— TRANSL.] 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  249 

DIFFERENT  LINES. 

Lastly,  two  canals  are  about  to  be  undertaken,  which 
will  connect  the  Pennsylvania  works  with  those  of  Ohio, 
and  of  consequence,  form  new  connections  between  the 
Mississippi  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  One  of  these  is  the 
Sandy  and  Beaver  canal,  which,  beginning  at  the  conflu- 
ence of  the  Big  Beaver  with  the  Ohio,  follows  the  latter 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Little  Beaver,  ascends  the  valley  of 
this  stream,  and  passes  down  that  of  the  Sandy  River  to 
the  Ohio  canal  at  Bolivar ;  the  length  will  be  90  miles. 
From  Bolivar  to  New  York  by  the  Ohio  canal,  Lake  Erie, 
Erie  canal,  and  the  Hudson,  the  distance  is  785  miles; 
by  the  new  canal  the  distance  from  Bolivar  to  Philadelphia, 
that  is,  to  the  ocean,  is  only  512.  The  Mahoning  canal 
leaves  the  Ohio  canal  at  Akron,  .following  the  valleys  of 
the  Little  Cuyahoga,  the  Mahoning,  a  tributary  of  the 
Big  Beaver,  and  the  Big  Beaver,  to  the  Ohio  •  it  is  about 
90  miles  in  length ;  the  distance  from  Akron  to  the  river 
Ohio  is  115  miles. 

The  generally  level  character  of  the  surface  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois  is  not  less  favourable  to  the  construc- 
tion of  railroads  than  to  that  of  canals.  But  as  capital  is 
scarce  in  this  new  country,  which  is  as  yet  but  imperfectly 
brought  under  cultivation,  but  few  enterprises  of  much 
importance  have  hitherto  been  undertaken.  The  financial 
companies  and  institutions,  which  have  always  preceded 
the  introduction  of  canals  and  railroads,  have,  however, 
been  already  established  and  are  prosperous,  and  their 
success  is  the  omen  of  the  approach  of  the  latter.  In  the 
absence  of  companies,  the  States  are  ready  to  adopt  the 
most  extensive  schemes  of  public  works  ;  for  the  American 
of  the  West  is  not  a  whit  behind  the  American  of  the 
East  in  enterprise.  At  present,  I  know  of  but  a  single 
railroad  actually  in  process  of  construction  beyond  the 
32 


250  LETTER  XXI. 

Ohio,  and  that  does  not  seem  to  be  pushed  forward  with 
much  activity  ;  it  is  the  Mad  River  railroad,  which  is  to 
extend  from  Dayton,  on  the  Miami  canal,  to  Sandusky, 
on  the  bay  of  that  name  in  Lake  Erie ;  the  length  will 
be  153  miles.  Many  others  have  been  projected  in  this 
region,  and  Indiana  has  caused  surveys  to  b'3  made  for  a 
railroad  extending  across  the  State  from  north  to  south, 
or  from  New  Albany  on  the  Ohio  to  some  point  on  Lake 
Michigan.* 

WORKS  FOR  IMPROVING  THE  NAVIGATION  OF  THE  OHIO,  MISSISSIPPI, 
AND  ST.  LAWRENCE. 

To  this  head  belong  the  works  executed  in  the  beds  of 
the  rivers  themselves.  The  Mississippi  is  the  beau  ideal 
of  rivers  in  regard  to  navigable  facilities.  From  St.  Louis 
to  New  Orleans,  a  distance  of  nearly  1200  miles,  there  is 


*  In  1836,  the  legislature  of  Indiana  adopted  a  general  system  of  public 
works,  for  the  execution  of  which  it  authorised  a  loan  of  10,000,000  dollars. 
The  system  embraces  the  canalisation  of  the  Wabash  and  While  River, 
the  connection  of  the  Wabash  with  the  Maurnee,  and  of  Lake  Michigan 
with  the  same  river  by  canals,  and  a  canal  across  the  centre  of  the  State 
from  Evansville  by  Indianapolis  to  the  Wabash  and  Erie  canal.  Appropri- 
ations were  made  by  the  same  law  for  railroads  from  Madison  and  Jeffer- 
sonville  on  the  Ohio  to  the  Wabash  canal,  and  in  aid  of  the  Lawrenceburg 
and  Indianapolis  railroad  which  has  been  undertaken  by  a  company.  [The 
State  of  Illinois  has  also  made  provision  for  a  series  of  public  works  on  an 
equally  liberal  scale  ;  an  act  of  1837  establishes  a  Board  of  Public  Works 
and  an  Internal  Improvement  Fund,  and  provides  for  the  construction  of  a 
railroad  across  the  State  from  north  to  south,  reaching  from  the  junction  of 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  by  Vandalia  and  Peru  to  Galena,  being  about  460 
miles  in  length  ;  of  four  roads  crossing  the  State  from  east  to  west,  namely, 
from  Shawneetown  on  the  Ohio  to  Alton  on  the  Mississippi,  from  Mt.  Car- 
mel  on  the  Wabash  to  Alton,  from  Terre  Haute  on  the  Wabash  to  Alton, 
and  from  Covington  on  the  Wabash  to  Quincy  on  the  Mississippi,  and  of 
another  cross  road  from  Bloomington,  in  the  centre  of  the  State  to  Warsaw 
on  the  Mississippi.  These  works  are  now  in  active  progress,  as  are  also 
some  works  for  improving  the  navigation  of  the  Illinois,  Rock  River, 
Kaskaskia  and  Little  Wabash.  The  youthful  State  of  Michigan  has  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  these  elder  sisters,  by  establishing  a  Board  of  Public 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  251 

water  enough  for  steamers  of  300  tons  throughout  the 
year.  Its  yellow  and  muddy  waters  flow  in  a  deep,  al- 
though very  circuitous  channel,  and  its  general  breadth  is 
from  800  to  1,000  yards,  in  places  where  it  is  not  expanded 
to  a  much  greater  width  by  low,  flat  islands,  thickly  cov- 
ered with  trees.  There  are  no  sand-banks  in  this  part  of 
the  channel,  yet  there  are  formidable  dangers  in  the  way 
of  the  inexperienced  navigator ;  these  are  the  trunks  of 
trees,  that  have  been  carried  away  from  the  banks,  as  has 
been  before  mentioned,  and  in  the  removal  of  which  the 
Federal  government  keeps  steam  snag-boats,  the  Heliopolis 
and  Archimedes,  employed ;  these  boats  are  provided  with 
a  peculiar  machinery  by  means  of  which  they  drag  the 
trees  up  from  the  bed,  and  saw  them  into  pieces  of  an 
inconsiderable  length. 

Captain  Shreves,  who  has  the  command  of  these  boats, 
and  who  invented  the  machinery,  is  also  employed  in  con- 
structing sunk  dams  of  loose  stones  in  the  Ohio,  which 
have  the  effect  of  increasing  the  depth  of  water  in  the  dry 
season.  He  is  at  present  engaged  with  a  flotilla  of  steam- 
boats in  opening  the  bed  of  Red  River,  one  of  the  great 
tributaries  of  the  Mississippi,  which  the  drift  timber  has 
choaked  up  and  covered  over  through  a  distance  of  165 
miles.*  At  Louisville,  the  Ohio,  whose  bed  has  generally 
a  very  slight  inclination,  has  a  descent  of  22  feet  in  the 
distance  of  two  miles,  so  as  to  be  impassable  for  steam- 
Works,  and  directing  the  construction  of  three  railroads  across  the  peninsula, 
from  Monroe,  Detroit,  and  Huron  to  Lake  Michigan,  and  a  canal  from  the 
river  Saginaw  of  Lake  Huron  to  the  Grand  River  of  Lake  Michigan. 
There  are  also  several  railroads  executed  by  companies  in  Michigan. — 
TRANSL.] 

*  [This  work  was  completed  in  the  spring  of  1838,  at  which  time  several 
steamboats  passed  wholly  through  the  place  formerly  occupied  by  the  raft. 
The  removal  of  that  obstruction,  has  extended  the  navigation  by  steamboats 
750  miles  on  the  Red  River,  exclusive  of  600  miles  on  several  branches. — 
TRANSL.]  x 


252  LETTER  XXI. 

boats,  except  during  the  season  of  high  water.  The 
Louisville  and  Portland  canal  has  been  constructed  by  a 
company  to  avoid  this  obstruction ;  it  is  nearly  one  mile 
and  three  fourths  in  length,  and  cost  750,000  dollars.* 
It  receives  the  largest  boats  at  a  rate  of  toll  which  for  the 
Henry  Clay  amounts  to  175  dollars,  and  for  the  Uncle 
Sam  190  dollars.  It  has  been  proposed  that  Congress 
should  buy  this  canal,  and  make  the  passage  toll-free  ;  and 
the  importance  of  the  navigation  of  the  Ohio  would  justify 
the  measure. 

The  St.  Lawrence  differs  essentially  from  the  Mississippi ; 
instead  of  an  expanse  of  muddy  waters,  it  presents  to  the 
eye  a  clear  blue  surface.  The  Mississippi  traverses  a  low, 
uninhabited,  and  uninhabitable  region,  of  which  the  soil 
consists  entirely  of  sand,  or  rather  of  mud  deposited  by 
the  river-floods ;  not  a  stone  as  large  as  the  fist  is  to  be 
found,  and  only  a  few  bluff  points  are  met  with  which  are 
above  the  reach  of  high  water,  and  on  which  the  pale 
inhabitants  struggle  unsuccessfully  with  the  pestilential 
emanations  of  the  surrounding  swamps.  The  St.  Law- 
rence flows  through  a  broken,  hilly,  and  sometimes  rugged 
country,  with  a  fertile  soil,  everywhere  healthful,  sprinkled 
with  flourishing  villages,  which  attract  the  eye  of  the 
traveller  from  a  distance  by  their  houses  newly  white- 
washed every  year,  and  their  churches  built  in  the  French 
style  with  their  spires  covered  with  tin.  The  Mississippi, 
like  the  Nile,  has  its  annual  overflow,  or  rather  it  has  two  in 
each  year,  but  the  spring-floods  are  much  the  most  conside- 
rable. The  St.  Lawrence,  owing  to  the  vast  extent  of  the 
lakes  which  serve  as  a  reservoir  and  feeder  to  it,  always 
preserves  the  same  level,  the  extreme  range  of  its  rise  and 
fall  being  only  about  20  inches.  The  St.  Lawrence,  from 


*  It  is  50  feet  wide  at  bottom  and  200  feet  at  top,  and  has  four  locks,  170 
feet  long  by  50  wide. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  253 

the  beauty  of  its  waters,  from  their  prodigious  volume, 
from  the  country  which  it  waters,  and  from  the  groups  of 
isles  scattered  over  it,  would  be  one  of  the  first  rivers  in 
the  world  in  the  eyes  of  the  artist,  but.  in  those  of  the 
merchant,  it  is  of  quite  a  secondary  importance.  Its  trans- 
parent waters  hardly  hide  the  numerous  rocks ;  the  navi- 
gation is  interrupted  first  by  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  and 
after  it  leaves  Lake  Ontario  by  numerous  rapids,  cataracts, 
or  rocks  between  that  lake  and  Montreal,  and  none  but  an 
Indian  or  a  French  Canadian,  would  dare  to  descend  these 
points  in  that  portion  of  the  river  in  a  canoe  ;  at  several 
points,  the  most  powerful  steamer  would  be  unable  to  make 
head  against  the  current. 

The  spirit  of  emulation  which  has  prevailed  among  the 
States  of  the  Union,  has  extended  to  the  British  Provinces, 
to  the  English  population,  which,  leaving  the  lower  part 
of  the  river  to  the  French,  has  occupied  Upper  Canada. 
The  inhabitants  of  this  Province  have  embraced  the  opin- 
ion, that  if  the  chain  of  communication  which  is  broken 
by  the  cataracts  and  rapids,  could  be  made  whole,  much 
of  the  produce,  which  now  finds  its  way  to  the  Mississippi, 
or  to  the  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  canals,  would  seek 
a  more  convenient  vent  by  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  that  the 
British  manufactures  would  take  the  same  route  up  the 
river,  through  the  ports  of  duebec  and  Montreal,  to  the 
Western  States.  One  canal  has,  therefore,  already  been 
executed  around  the  falls  of  the  Niagara,  which  forms  a 
communication  between  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario ;  the 
Welland  canal  is  28  miles  in  length,  exclusive  of  20  miles 
of  slack- water  navigation.  It  is  navigable  by  lake-craft 
of  120  tons,  and  has  cost  2,000,000  dollars,  nearly  the 
whole  of  which  was  furnished  by  the  upper  Province, 
Lower  Canada  and  the  mother  country  having  contributed 
a  very  trifling  sum. 

Since  that  work  has  been  completed,  the  river  below 


254  LETTER  XXI. 

Lake  Ontario  has  been  surveyed,  and  it  has  been  found 
that  the  aggregate  length  of  the  points  not  passable  by 
steamboats  of  ten  feet  draft  is  only  30  miles,  pretty  equally 
divided  between  the  two  provinces.  Upper  Canada,  which 
contains  hardly  250,000  inhabitants,  with  no  large  towns 
and  with  little  capital,  has  begun  her  portion  of  the  work 
along  the  rapids  within  her  limits.  This  work  will  be 
large  enough  to  admit  the  passage  of  steamboats  drawing 
nine  feet  water,  and  of  the  burden  of  500  tons.  I  saw 
the  labourers  at  work  along  the  Long  Saut  Rapids  at 
Cornwall,  where  there  will  be  a  cut  of  13  miles  in  length  ; 
the  estimated  cost  of  this  section  is  1,250.000  dollars. 
The  French  population  of  Lower  Canada,  swallowed  up 
in  political  quarrels,  the  result  of  which  cannot  be  foreseen, 
neglects  its  essential  interests  in  pursuit  of  the  imaginary 
interests  of  national  pride.  It  has  done  nothing  towards 
continuing,  within  its  limits,  the  great  work,  which  has 
been  begun  by  the  poorer  province  of  Upper  Canada. 

SECT.  HI.    LINES  OF  COMMUNICATION  ALONG  THE  ATLANTIC. 

FIRST    LINE.      INLAND    CHANNELS    BY    THE     SOUNDS    AND    BAYS 
ALONG    THE    ATLANTIC. 

Upon  examining  the  coast  of  the  United  States  from 
Boston  to  Florida,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  almost  a 
continuous  line  of  inland  navigation,  extending  from  north- 
east to  southwest  in  a  direction  parallel  to  that  of  the 
coast,  formed,  in  the  north  by  a  series  of  bays  and  rivers, 
and  in  the  south,  by  a  number  of  long  sounds,  or  by  the 
narrow  passes  between  the  mainland  and  the  chain  of  low 
islands  that  lie  in  front  of  the  former.  The  necks  of  land 
that  separate  these  bays,  rivers,  and  lagoons,  are  all  flat 
and  of  inconsiderable  breadth.  From  Providence  (42 
miles  south  of  Boston)  to  New  York  are  Narragansett  Bay 
and  Long  Island  Sound,  together  180  miles  in  length. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  255 

Thence  to  reach  to  the  Delaware  you  go  to  New  Bruns- 
wick at  the  head  of  the  Raritan  Bay,  where  you  encoun- 
ter the  New  Jersey  isthmus,  a  level  tract,  not  more  than 
40  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  or  than  35  to  40  miles 
in  width.  This  neck  is  now  cut  across  by  the  Raritan 
and  Delaware  Canal,  a  fine  work,  navigable  by  the 
small  coasting  craft,  and  43  miles  in  length,  exclusive  of  a 
navigable  feeder  24  miles,  all  lately  executed  by  a  compa- 
ny, in  less  than  three  years,  at  a  cost  of  about  2,500,000 
dollars.* 

This  canal  terminates  at  Bordentown,  on  the  Delaware. 
Hence  the  navigation  is  continued  to  Delaware  City,  70 
miles  below  Bordentown,  and  40  below  Philadelphia. 
There,  the  isthmus  which  divides  the  Delaware  from  the 
Chesapeake,  is  cut  through  by  a  canal,  of  which  the  sum- 
mit level  is  only  12  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  sea  ;  this 
is  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  canal,  like  the  last  men- 
tioned of  dimensions  suited  to  coasting  vessels.  The  cost 
was  very  great,  about  2,600,000  dollars  ;  length  13  1-2 
miles.  Having  entered  the  Chesapeake,  the  voyage  may 
be  continued  to  Norfolk  about  200  miles.  Thence,  to  the 
series  of  sounds  and  inland  channels  on  the  coast  of  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  extends  the  Dismal 
Swamp  Canal,  whose  length  is  20  miles,  and  whose  sum- 
mit level  is  only  10  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea ;  this 
is  also  adapted  for  coasting  vessels.  The  works  intended 
to  continue  the  navigation  beyond  the  sounds  connected 
with  the  Dismal  Swamp  canal,  have  not  been  completed, 
and  to  the  south  of  the  Chesapeake  the  line  is,  therefore, 
imperfect ;  but  steamboats  run  from  Charleston  to  Savan- 
nah, by  the  channels  and  lagoons  between  the  mainland 
and  the  low  islands  which  yield  the  famous  long-staple 
cotton. 

*  It  is  from  65  to  75  feet  wide  at  top,  and  7  feet  deep.  The  locks  are  well 
constructed,  and  very  expeditiously  worked. 


256  LETTER  XXI. 

SECOND  LINE.     COMMUNICATION  BETWEEN  THE  NORTH  AND  SOUTH 
BY  THE  MARITIME  CAPITALS. 

Parallel  to  the  preceding  line  which  is  designed  for  the 
transportation  of  bulky  articles,  is  another  further  inland 
for  the  use  of  travellers,  and  the  lighter  and  more  valuable 
merchandise,  on  which  steam  is  becoming  the  only  motive 
power,  both  by  land  and  by  water ;  by  land  on  railways, 
and  by  water  in  steamboats.  You  go  from  Boston  to 
Providence  by  a  railroad,  42  miles  in  length,  which  cost 
1,500,000  dollars,  or  33,000  dollars  a  mile.  From  Provi- 
dence to  New  York,  passengers  are  carried  by  the  steam- 
boats in  from  14  to  18  hours  ;  some  boats  have  made  the 
passage  in  12  hours.  In  passing  from  Narragansett  Bay 
to  the  Sound,  it  is  necessary  to  double  Point  Judith,  where 
there  is  commonly  a  rough  sea,  to  avoid  which  a  railway 
is  now  in  progress  from  Providence  to  Stonington,  a  dis- 
tance of  47  miles.  A  third  railroad,  of  which  the  utility 
seems  questionable  (since  the  boats  in  the  Sound  move  at 
the  rate  of  15  miles  an  hour),  is  projected  from  a  point  on 
Long  Island  opposite  Stonington  to  Brooklyn,  a  distance 
of  88  miles. 

Between  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  you  go  by  steam- 
boat to  South  Amboy  on  Raritan  Bay,  28  miles,  whence 
a  railroad  extends  across  the  peninsula  to  Bordentown, 
and  down  along  the  Delaware  to  Camden,  opposite  Phila- 
delphia. In  summer  a  steamboat  is  taken  at  Bordentown, 
but  in  winter  the  Delaware  is  frozen  over,  and  the  rail- 
way is  then  used  through  the  whole  distance  to  transport 
the  crowd  that  is  always  going  and  coming  between  the 
commercial  and  financial  capitals  of  the  United  States, 
between  the  great  mart  and  the  exchange  of  the  Union, 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  An  ice-boat  lands  the 
traveller  in  Philadelphia,  a  few  minutes  after  he  has  left 
the  cars  at  Camden.  This  railroad  is  61  miles  in  length, 
and  cost  2,300,000  dollars,  or  38,000  dollars  a  mile.  It 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  257 

has  but  one  track  most  of  the  way.  I  met  many  persons 
at  Philadelphia,  who  remembered  having  been  two,  and 
sometimes  three  long  days  on  the  road  to  New  York  ;  it 
is  now  an  affair  of  seven  hours,  which  will  soon  be  re- 
duced to  six.  Two  railroads  belonging  to  a  different 
group,  of  which  one  is  completed,  and  the  other  nearly  so, 
will  form,  with  the  exception  of  an  interval  of  several 
miles,  a  second  line  across  the  peninsula,  from  New  York 
to  Philadelphia.  The  one  extends  from  Philadelphia  to 
Trenton,  26  miles  ;  the  other  from  Jersey  City,  opposite 
New  York  to  New  Brunswick,  30  miles ;  if,  therefore, 
rails  were  laid  between  New  Brunswick  and  Trenton,  a 
distance  of  28  miles,  over  a  perfectly  level  plain,  the  land 
communication  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia  would 
be  complete ;  but  the  State  of  New  Jersey  has  hitherto 
refused  to  authorise  this  connection,  because  it  received 
a  considerable  sum  from  the  Camden  and  Amboy  company 
for  the  monopoly  of  the  travel.* 

From  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore,  the  route  is  continued 
by  a  steamboat  to  Newcastle,  and  a  railroad  from  thence 
to  Frenchtown,  across  the  peninsula,  16  1-4  miles  long, 
whence  another  steamboat  takes  the  traveller  to  Baltimore, 
in  8  or  9  hours  after  starting  from  Philadelphia.  The 
Newcastle  and  Frenchtown  railroad  cost  400,000  dollars, 
or  24,500  dollars  a  mile.  The  navigation  of  the  Chesa- 
peake and  Delaware  is  sometimes  interrupted  by  ice,  and 
it  has,  therefore,  been  thought  that  it  would  be  useful  to 
have  a  continuous  railroad  from  Philadelphia  ;  there  would 
also  be  a  saving  of  time,  for  the  present  route  is  some- 
what circuitous.  Different  companies  have  undertaken 
different  portions  of  this  work,  which  will  pass  by  Wil- 
mington and  Havre  de  Grace,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sus- 


*  [The  link  between  New  Brunswick  and  Trenton  has  since  been  autho- 
rised by  the  State  and  constructed. — TRANSL.] 

33 


258  LETTER  XXI. 

quehanna.  The  whole  distance  by  this  route  is  only  93 
miles,  instead  of  118,  the  distance  by  the  present  line,  and 
the  passage  will  occupy  five  cr  six  hours,  instead  of  eight 
or  nine.  From  Baltimore  southwardly  two  routes  offer 
themselves ;  you  may  take  the  steamboat  to  Norfolk,  a 
distance  of  200  miles,  which  is  accomplished  in  18  or  20 
hours,  whence  another  boat  ascends  the  James  River  to 
Richmond  still  more  rapidly,  the  distance  of  about  135  miles 
being  passed  over  in  10  hours  ;  or  you  may  go  from  Nor- 
folk to  Weldon  on  the  Roanoke  by  a  railroad  77  miles  in 
length,  of  which  two  thirds  are  completed.* 

From  Baltimore  you  may  also  go  to  Washington,  by  a 
branch  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  and  thence  by 
steamboat  down  the  Potomac  to  a  little  village,  15  miles 
from  Fredericksburg,  from  which  a  railroad  is  now  in  pro- 
gress toi  Richmond.  It  will  be  58  miles  in  length,  and 
will  cost;  but  12,000  dollars  a  mile,  including  the  engines, 
cars,  and  depots.  From  Petersburg,  20  miles  from  Rich- 
mond, a  railroad  extends  to  Blakely  on  the  Roanoke,  60 
miles,  and  the  interval  between  Petersburg  and  Richmond 
will  soon  be  filled  up.  The  Petersburg  and  Roanoke 
railroad,  which  is  shorter  than  the  post-road,  follows  with 
very  little  deviation  an  old  Indian  trail,  a  remarkable  fact, 
which  was  told  me  by  the  able  engineer  Mr  Moncure 
Robinson.  It  extends,  almost  entirely  on  the  surface  of 
the  ground  and  without  embankments,  through  the  sandy, 
uncultivated  plains,  intersected  by  pools  of  stagnant  water, 
which  uniformly  border  the  sea  from  the  Chesapeake  to 
Cape  Florida,  and  are  annually  infested  by  the  fever  of  the 
country.  The  whole  region  is  most  admirably  adapted 
for  railroads,  which  are  constructed  almost  wholly  of 
wood.  The  surface  is  graded  by  nature,  and  the  sandy 

*  [The  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia,   Fredericksburg  and  Roanoke,  and 
Portsmouth  and  Roanoke  railroads  have  since  been  completed. — TRANSL.] 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  259 

soil  offers  an  excellent  foundation  for  the  wooden  frame 
on  which  the  rails  are  placed.  The  still  virgin  forests, 
consisting  of  pine  and  oak,  afford  an  inexhaustible  supply 
of  timber  for  the  construction  of  the  railways,  free  to  who- 
ever wishes  to  use  it.  But  if  the  nature  of  the  country 
is  well  suited  to  this  object,  the  condition  of  the  popula- 
tion is  far  from  being  so.  In  this  sterile  tract,  the  inhab- 
itants are  thinly  scattered  over  the  surface,  and  there  are 
only  a  few  villages  here  and  there  on  the  rivers.  Large 
towns,  in  which  alone  the  necessary  capital  would  be 
found,  do  not  exist,  and  the  aid  of  Northern  capitalists  has 
been  necessarily  resorted  to.  Philadelphia  capital  has  b.een 
largely  employed  in  the  construction  of  the  Petersburg 
and  Richmond  railroads,  and  without  it,  the  great  line 
between  the  South  and  the  North,  will  not  be  continued 
across  North  Carolina,  one  of  the  poorest  States  in  the 
confederacy,  and  connected  with  the  works  completed  or 
in  progress  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  great  void  of  325  miles,  between 
the  Roanoke  and  Charleston,  the  chief  city  of  South  Caro- 
lina, or  rather  of  275  miles  between  the  Roanoke  and 
Columbia,  the  capital  of  that  State.*  From  Charleston,  a 
railroad  136  miles  in  length,  extends  through  the  unculti- 
vated and  feverish  zone  of  sand  and  pine-barrens  to  the 
cotton-region ;  it  terminates  at  Hamburg,  on  the  River 
Savannah,  opposite  Augusta,  which  is  the  principal  inte- 
rior cotton-market ;  the  cost  of  this  work  was  only  about 
9,500  dollars  a  mile  including  some  cars,  &c.  Its  con- 
struction is  peculiar  in  this  respect,  that  where  its  level  is 
above  that  of  the  surface,  recourse  has  been  had  to  piles 


*  It  will  be  easy  to  construct  a  branch  from  the  Charleston  and  Augusta 
railroad  to  Columbia,  and  the  route  has  been  surveyed.  [This  branch  is 
now  in  progress,  and  as  the  Raleigh  and  Gaston  railroad,  from  the  Roanoke 
to  Raleigh,  is  also  nearly  completed,  there  remains  only  the  link  between 
Raleigh  and  Columbia  not  yet  undertaken. — TRANSL.] 


260  LETTER  XXI. 

instead  of  embankments  ;  the  railway,  thus  perched  upon 
stilts  from  15  to  25  feet  high,  certainly  leaves  something 
to  be  desired  in  regard  to  the  safety  of  travellers,  but  it 
was  necessary  to  construct  it,  and  to  do  so  with  a  very 
small  capital,  and  in  this  respect  it  has  been  successful. 
The  receipts  have  already  been  sufficiently  large  to  permit 
the  company  gradually  to  substitute  embankments  of  earth 
for  the  frail  props  on  which  it  formerly  rested.  Another 
singular  circumstance  about  it  is,  that  it  was  constructed 
almost  entirely  by  slaves.  This  road  was  undertaken  with 
the  purpose  of  diverting  the  cotton,  which  descended  the 
river  Savannah  to  the  town  of  the  same  name,  from  that 
place  to  Charleston,  and  it  has  fully  answered  the  expecta- 
tations  of  its  projectors. 

From  Augusta,  the  Georgia  railroad  has  lately  been  be- 
gun, and  will  traverse  some  of  the  most  fertile  cotton  dis- 
tricts in  the  State  ;  it  will  extend  to  Athens,  a  distance  of 
115  miles.  To  continue  the  line  from  North  to  South,  or 
from  Boston  to  New  Orleans,  it  would  be  necessary  that 
this  railroad  should  be  prolonged  in  the  direction  of  Mont- 
gomery, Alabama,  whence  a  steamer  takes  the  traveller  to 
Mobile,  on  the  River  Alabama.*  Between  Mobile  and 
New  Orleans,  there  are  regular  lines  of  steamboats  run- 
ning through  Mobile  Bay,  Pascagoula  Sound,  and  Lakes 
Borgne  and  Pontchartain.  The  four  last  miles,  between 
the  latter  lake  and  New  Orleans,  are  passed  over  in  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  on  a  railroad,  which  the  Louisiana 
legislature  calls  in  its  bad  French  chemin  a  coulisses. 
Such  is  the  line  between  the  North  and  South,  of  which 
the  execution  is  the  most  advanced ;  it  will  not  be  the 

*  [A  prolongation  of  the  Georgia  railroad  to  Decatur,  160  miles  from 
Augusta,  is  already  in  progress,  and  the  Montgomery  and  Chattahoochee 
railroad,  extending  from  West  Point  on  the  latter  to  the  river  Alabama, 
forms  another  link  in  the  chain  between  Boston  or  rather  Bangor  and  New 
Orleans. — TR  A  u  SL  .] 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  261 

only  one,  but  as  civilisation  establishes  itself  further  west 
and  capital  multiplies,  several  new  routes  will  be  formed, 
receding  more  and  more  from  the  coast. 

The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  is  connected  at  Har- 
per's Ferry  with  the  Winchester  railroad,  30  miles  in 
length,  which  runs  up  the  bed  of  one  of  those  long  val- 
leys that  separate  the  successive  ridges  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  from  each  other.  That  in  which  Winchester 
stands,  is  one  of  the  most  regular  and  fertile  of  these  great 
basins,  and  is  celebrated  under  the  name  of  the  Virginia 
Valley.  Although,  therefore,  the  Winchester  railroad  was 
constructed  only  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  produce  of 
Winchester  and  its  vicinity  an  easy  access  to  the  market 
of  Baltimore,  yet  it  may  one  day  become  a  link  in  the 
great  chain  of  communication  extending  through  the 
Valley  from  north  to  south.  A  company  has  already  been 
chartered  for  continuing  the  work  to  Staunton,  a  distance 
of  96  miles.  Another  line  from  the  South  to  the  North, 
which  will,  perhaps,  be  connected  with  that  of  the  great 
Valley,  has  been  projected  at  New  Orleans,  and  authorised 
by  the  legislatures  of  Louisiana  and  the  other  States  through 
whteh  it  will  pass ;  it  is  a  railroad  from  New  Orleans  to 
Nashville,  the  capital  of  Tennessee,  and  I  am  assured  that 
the  work  will  soon  be  commenced.  This  line  aspires  to 
nothing  less  than  a  competition  with  the  magnificent 
river  lines  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  in  the  trans- 
portation of  passengers  and  cotton. 

SECT.  IV.    LINES  RADIATING  AROUND  THE  LARGE  TOWNS. 

FIRST  CENTRE.     BOSTON. 

Three  railroads  extend  from  Boston  in  different  direc- 
tions ;  the  first,  26  miles  in  length,  to  the  manufacturing 
city  of  Lowell,  which  is  thus  become  a  suburb  of  Boston, 
and  the  second,  44  miles  in  length,  to  Worcester,  the  cen- 


262  LETTER  XXI. 

tre  of  an  important  agricultural  district.  The  former  cost 
60,000  dollars  a  miles,  the  latter  32,000.  The  third  road 
is  the  Providence  railroad,  already  mentioned  above  as  one 
of  the  links  in  the  great  chain  from  north  to  south.  The 
Lowell  railroad  enters  into  competition  with  the  Middle- 
sex canal ;  the  Worcester  road  is  to  be  continued  to  the 
River  Hudson,  where  it  will  terminate  opposite  Albany. 
It  will  also  be  connected  with  the  city  of  Hudson,  30 
miles  below  Albany,  by  a  railroad  extending  from  West 
Stockbridge.  It  will  thus  become  to  Boston  a  Western 
Railroad,  which  name  it  has  in  fact  received.  A  company 
has  been  authorised  to  execute  the  portion  between  Wor- 
cester and  Springfield,  a  distance  of  54  miles,  the  whole 
distance  from  Boston  to  Albany  being  160  miles.*  The 
Eastern  railroad,  a  fourth  work  is  about  to  be  undertaken, 
passing  through  Lynn,  famous  for  its  boots  and  shoes, 
Salem,  a  little  city  which  carries  on  an  extensive  trade 
with  China,  Ipswich,  Beverly,  and  Newburyport  towards 
Portland,  the  principal  town  in  the  northern  extremity  of 
the  Union. 

SECOND  CENTRE.    NEW  YORK. 

Radiating  from  New  York  are,  1.  The  railroad  to  Pater- 
son,  an  important  manufacturing  town  at  the  falls  of  the 
Passaic,  16  miles  in  length ;  2.  The  New  Brunswick  rail- 



*  During  the  session  of  1836  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts  subscribed 
1,000,000  in  aid  of  the  Western  Railroad;  this  measure  was  the  first  step 
taken  by  the  State  in  the  promotion  of  public  works,  and  indicates  a  com- 
plete revolution  in  its  policy  on  this  point.  [This  act  was  immediately  fol- 
lowed by  similar  acts  in  aid  of  the  several  other  railroads  now  in  progress 
in  the  State,  and  in  1838,  by  a  further  grant  of  the  credit  of  the  State  to  the 
Western  Railroad  to  the  amount  of  1,200,000  dollars.  That  work  will  be 
completed  to  Springfield  in  October  (1839),  and  the  section  between  Spring- 
field and  West  Stockbridge  is  already  far  advanced  towards  its  completion. 
The  Lowell  railroad  has  been  extended  to  Nashua,  and  an  eastern  branch 
is  now  completed  to  Haverhill,  of  which  a  continuation  towards  Exeter  is 
now  in  progress. — TRANSL.] 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  263 

road  already  mentioned,  which  serves  as  a  route  of  com- 
munication with  several  important  points,  especially  New- 
ark, and  for  the  transportation  of  provisions  for  the  New- 
York  market  from  a  portion  of  New  Jersey ;  3.  The 
Harlsem  railroad,  almost  exclusively  for  passengers ;  and 
4.  The  Brooklyn  and  Jamaica  railroad,  on  Long  Island, 
12  miles  in  length,  and  designed  both  for  pleasure  excur- 
sions, and  for  transporting  articles  of  consumption  to  the 
markets  of  New  York.* 

THIRD  CKNTRE.     PHILADELPHIA. 

Around  Philadelphia,  in  addition  to  the  great  works 
extending  to  Columbia,  Amboy,  and  Baltimore,  already 
mentioned,  are  1.  The  Trenton  railroad  ;  2.  The  Norris- 
town  and  Germantown  road,  designed  for  passengers  and 
for  the  accommodation  of  some  manufacturing  villages, 
such  as  Manayunk,  16  miles  in -length  ;  and  3.  That  of 
West  Chester,  a  branch  of  the  Columbia  railroad,  9  miles 
in  length,  designed  for  the  supply  of  the  markets  of  the 
city.  There  are  also  several  railroads  running  through 
the  city,  of  which  the  rails  are  laid  on  the  level  of  the 
street,  and  on  which  horse-cars  only  are  used. 

FOURTH  CENTRE.  BALTIMORE. 

Beside  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  with  its  Wash- 
ington branch,  Baltimore  is  also  about  to  have  a  railroad 
through  York,  to  the  Susquehanna,  opposite  to  t  Columbia, 
the  length  of  which  will  be  73  miles.  The  object  of  this 
road  is  to  contest  with  Philadelphia  the  commerce  of  the 
valley  of  the  Susquehanna.  The  Pennsylvania  canal 

*  [To  these  should  be  added  the  railroads  from  Newark  to  Morristown, 
and  from  Elizabethtown  to  Somerville,  both  intersecting  the  New  Bruns- 
wick railroad,  and  extending  into  a  fine  farming  country.  The  Brooklyn 
railroad  has  also  been  continued  about  20  miles  beyond  Jamaica. — TRANSL.] 


264  LETTER  XXI. 

with  its  various  branches  forms  a  canalisation  of  this  river 
and  its  tributaries  above  Columbia.  But  below  Columbia, 
there  are  several  rapids  and  shoals  which  interrupt  the 
navigation  of  the  river,  except  for  down  ward- bound  boats 
in  the  highest  stages  of  the  water.  The  Philadelphia 
merchants,  fearing  that  all  the  works  executed  at  a  great 
expense  by  Pennsylvania,  would  turn  out  much  less  advanta- 
geously for  them  than  for  the  Baltimoreans,  as  these  last 
have,  indeed,  openly  boasted,  opposed  for  a  long  time  both 
the  canalisation  of  the  Susquehanna  from  Columbia  to  its 
mouth,  and  the  permission  to  construct  that  section  of  a 
railroad  from  Baltimore  to  Columbia,  which  would  lie 
within  the  limits  of  Pennsylvania.  Their  opposition  has, 
however,  been  at  last  overcome,  and  charters  have  been 
granted  authorising  the  construction  of  both  works.  The 
railroad  company,  to  which  Maryland  has  just  made  a 
loan  of  1,000,000  dollars,  is  pushing  on  the  railway  with 
great  activity. 

FIFTH  CENTRE.    CHARLESTON. 

Some  short  canals  have  been  cut  to  facilitate  the  access 
to  Charleston  from  the  interior,  but  they  are  in  a  bad  state, 
and  are  of  little  importance. 

SIXTH  CENTRE.    NEW  ORLEANS. 

Independently  of  the  short  railway  of  five  miles  from 
Lake  Pontchartain  to  New  Orleans,  there  are  several  other 
works,  such  as  the  Carrolton  railroad,  which  is  a  little 
longer,  and  two  short  canals  extending  from  the  city  to 
the  lake.  Some  cuts  have  also  been  made  between  the 
lagoons  and  marshes  of  the  lower  Mississippi.  These 
canals,  dug  in  a  wet  and  muddy  soil,  have  presented  se- 
rious difficulties  in  their  construction  ;  but  they  are  of  no 
interest  in  regard  to  extent  or  importance. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  265 

SEVENTH   CENTRE.     SARATOGA. 

Saratoga  Springs  in  New  York  are  visited  for  two  or 
three  months  in  the  summer,  by  crowds  of  persons  who 
throng  thither  in  shoals.  There  is  not  a  master  of  a 
family  of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Baltimore,  in  easy 
circumstances,  who  does  not  feel  obliged  to  pass  24  or  48 
hours  with  his  wife  and  daughters,  amidst  this  crowd  in 
their  Sunday's  best,  and  to  visit  the  field  where  the  Eng- 
lish army  under  General  Burgoyne  surrendered  its  arms. 
There  are  at  present  two  railroads  to  Saratoga ;  one  from 
Schenectady,  22  miles  in  length,  a  branch  of  the  Albany 
and  Schenectady  road,  and  another  from  Troy  on  the 
Hudson,  25  miles  in  length.  After  the  season  is  over  they 
serve  for  the  transportation  of  fuel  and  timber. 

SECTION  V.    WORKS  CONNECTED  WITH  COAL-MINES. 

The  bituminous  coal-mines  of  Chesterfield,  near  Rich- 
mond, are  connected  with  the  river  James  by  a  short 
railway  adapted  only  for  horses,  which  is  12  miles  long, 
and  cost  15,000  dollars  a  mile,  inclusive  of  the  cars,  depots, 
&c.  Once  delivered  at  the  river,  the  coal  is  easily  trans- 
ported along  the  whole  coast,  where  it  comes  into  compe- 
tition with  the  English  and  Nova  Scotia  coals. 

The  anthracite  beds  of  Pennsylvania  have  caused  the 
construction  of  a  much  more  extensive  series  of  works. 
At  present  hardly  any  other  fuel  is  consumed  on  the  coast 
for  domestic  and  manufacturing  purposes  than  the  anthra- 
cite, which  is  found  only  in  a  small  section  of  Pennsylvania, 
lying  between  the  Susquehanna  and  the  Delaware.  It 
gives  a  more  intense  and  sustained  heat  than  wood,  which 
had  also  become  very  dear,  and  is  much  better  suited  to 
the  rigorous  winters,  which  are  experienced  in  the  United 
States,  under  the  latitude  of  Naples.  It  is  also  much  pre- 
ferable to  the  bituminous  coal,  which  is  the  only  sort  of 
34 


266  LETTER  XXI. 

coal  in  use  with  us  ;  it  makes  no  smoke,  and  is  much  more 
cleanly,  not  soiling  the  carpets  and  drapery.  The  fire  is 
very  easily  kept  up,  and  a  grate  needs  to  be  filled  only  two 
or  three  times  during  the  whole  twentyfour  hours,  to 
maintain  a  fire  night  and  day.  The  servants,  whom  it 
spares  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  prefer  it,  and  on  this  point, 
as  on  several  others,  their  opinion  is  more  important  than 
that  of  their  masters.  The  only  inconvenience  attending 
it  is,  that  it  sometimes  diffuses  a  sulphurous  smell.  It  is 
also  beginning  to  take  the  place  of  wood  in  the  steam- 
boats. The  anthracite  trade  has,  therefore,  become  con- 
siderable, and  several  canals  and  railroads  have  been  made 
or  are  making,  to  transport  the  fuel  from  the  mines  to  the 
points  of  consumption. 

The  principal  of  these  lines  are  the  following :  1. 
The  Schuylkill  canal,  which  extends  from  Philadelphia 
to  the  vicinity  of  the  mines  about  the  head  of  the  Schuyl- 
kill. Its  length  from  Philadelphia  to  Port  Carbon,  is  108 
miles  ;  it  cost,  inclusive  of  the  double  locks,  3,000,000 
dollars,  or  28,000  dollars  a  mile,  and  yields  a  net  income 
of  20  to  25  per  cent. ;  400,000  tons  of  coal  are  annually 
brought  down  upon  it.  2.  The  Lehigh  canal  runs  from 
the  Delaware  to  the  mines  near  the  heads  of  the  Lehigh  ; 
it  is  46  miles  long,  and  cost  1,560,000  dollars,  or  34,000 
dollars  a  mile.  3.  The  lateral  canal  along  the  Delaware 
starts  from  Easton,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lehigh,  and  ends 
at  Bristol,  the  head  of  navigation  for  sea-vessels.  It  trans- 
ports to  Philadelphia,  the  coal  that  is  brought  down  the 
Lehigh  canal ;  it  is  60  miles  long,  and  cost  1,238,000  dol- 
lars, or  20",600  dollars  a  mile.  This  work  was  executed 
by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  has  been  before  enu- 
merated among  the  State  works.  4.  The  Morris  canal 
starts  from  Easton,  and  ends  at  Jersey  City,  opposite  New 
York.  It  serves  to  supply  the  New  York  market  with 
coal.  The  change  of  level  is  here  for  the  most  part 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  267 

effected,  not  by  locks,  but  by  inclined  planes,  the  operation 
of  which  is  very  simple  ;  the  length  of  this  work  is  102 
miles,  cost  2,650,000  dollars,  or  25,000  dollars  a  mile.  5. 
The  Delaware  and  Hudson  canal  extends  from  the  Round- 
out  creek  on  the  Hudson,  near  Kingston,  90  miles  above 
New  York,  to  the  anthracite  mines  near  the  upper  Dela- 
ware. The  coal  is  brought  down  to  the  canal,  at  Hones- 
dale,  from  the  mountains,  at  Carbondale,  on  a  railroad  16 
miles  in  length ;  the  canal  is  109  miles  long,  and  cost 
2,250,000  dollars  or  20,000  dollars  a  mile  ;  the  railroad 
cost  300,000  dollars  or  17,500  dollars  a  mile.  6.  The 
Pottsville  and  Sunbury  railroad  is  designed  to  bring  down 
to  the  Schuylkill  the  products  of  the  mines  lying  in  the 
heart  of  the  mountains  between  the  Susquehanna  and  the 
heads  of  the  Schuylkill.  It  is  remarkable  for  the  boldness 
of  the  inclined  planes,  some  of  which  have  an  inclination 
of  25  and  33  per  cent.,  and  which  are  worked  by  very 
ingenious  and  economical  contrivances.  It  is  45  miles  in 
length,  and  cost  1,120,000  dollars,  or  25,000  dollars  a  mile. 
7.  The  Philadelphia  and  Reading  railroad,  now  in  progress, 
will  enter  into  competition  with  the  Schuylkill  canal ;  it 
is  56  miles  in  length,  and  cost,  including  the  necessary 
apparatus,  26,300  dollars  a  mile.  It  is  proposed  to  con- 
tinue it  to  Pottsville,  35  miles  from  Reading  ;  there  would 
then  be  a  continuous  railroad  from  Philadelphia  to  the 
centre  of  the  Susquehanna  valley. 

Beside  these  seven  great  lines,  several  mining  companies 
have  constructed  various  railways  of  less  importance, 
which  branch  from  them  in  different  directions.  At  the 
end  of  1834,  there  were  165  miles  of  these  smaller  works, 
constructed  at  an  expense  of  about  1,125,000  dollars, 
which,  added  to  the  542  miles,  and  13,280,000  of  the 
seven  works  above  enumerated,  gives  a  total  of  707  miles 
and  14,400,000  dollars,  or  deducting  the  Delaware  ca- 
nal, which  has  been  before  reckoned,  of  647  miles  and 


268  LETTER  XXI. 

13,162,000  dollars.  The  aggregate  length  of  all  the  works 
which  I  have  already  enumerated,  including  only  those  that 
are  finished  or  far  advanced,  is  3,025  miles  of  canal,  and 
1,825  miles  of  railroad,  made  at  a  cost  of  above  112  mil- 
lions. If  we  add  several  detached  works,  such  as  the 
Ithaca  and  Owego,  the  Lexington  and  Louisville,  the 
Tuscumbia  and  Decatur  (Alabama)  railroads,  and  various 
canals  in  New  England,  Pennsylvania,  Georgia,  &c.,  we 
shall  have  a  total  of  3,250  miles  of  canal,  and  2,000  miles 
of  railroad,  constructed  at  an  expense  of  upwards  of  120 
million  dollars.  (See  Note  22.)  The  impulse  is,  there- 
fore, given,  the  movement  goes  on  with  increasing  speed, 
the  whole  country  is  becoming  covered  with  works  in 
every  direction.  If  I  were  to  attempt  to  enumerate  all 
the  railroads,  of  which  the  routes  are  under  survey,  which 
have  been  or  are  on  the  point  of  being  authorised  by  char- 
ters from  the  several  legislatures,  for  which  the  subscrip- 
tion is  about  to  be  opened,  or  has  already  been  filled  up,  I 
should  be  obliged  to  mention  all  the  towns  in  the  Union. 
A  town  of  10,000  inhabitants,  which  has  not  its  railroad, 
looks  upon  itself  with  that  feeling  of  shame,  which  our 
first  parents  experienced  in  the  terrestrial  paradise,  when, 
after  having  eaten  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge, 
they  saw  that  they  were  naked. 

I  have  here  spoken  of  the  more  perfect  means  of  inter- 
communication, canals  and  railroads,  and  not  of  common 
roads.  If  I  had  undertaken  to  speak  of  these,  I  should 
have  mentioned  at  their  head,  the  great  work  called  the 
National  or  Cumberland  road,  which,  starting  from  Wash- 
ington, or  strictly  speaking,  from  Cumberland,  on  the 
Potomac,  strikes  the  Ohio  at  Wheeling,  and  extends  west- 
wards, across  the  centre  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  to 
the  Mississippi ;  it  has  been  constructed  wholly  at  the 
expense  of  the  Federal  government,  and  up  to  the  present 
time  there  have  been  expended  upon  it  5,400,000  dollars. 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  269 

It  was  begun  in  1806,  and  is  now  nearly  finished  to  Van- 
dalia  in  Illinois.  A  dispute  between  Illinois  and  Missouri 
in  respect  to  its  termination,  has  delayed  the  completion  of 
the  last  division.  From  Washington  to  Vandalia,  the 
distance  is  800  miles,  and  from  Cumberland  to  Vandalia, 
675  miles.  The  doctrine  of  the  unconstitutionality  of 
Congress  engaging  in  internal  improvements  having  pre- 
vailed since  the  accession  of  General  Jackson  to  the  presi- 
dency, Congress  has  offered  the  National  Road  to  the 
States  within  which  it  lies,  and  they  have  accepted  it  on 
condition  of  its  being  first  put  in  a  state  of  perfect  repair. 
Several  of  the  States  have  also  spent  considerable  sums  in 
improving  the  condition  of  their  roads ;  South  Carolina, 
for  instance,  has  devoted  about  a  million  and  a  half  to  this 
object. 

The  public  works  of  the  United  States  are  generally 
managed  with  economy,  as  the  statements  above  made 
testify  ;  for  the  cost  has  been  much  less  than  that  of  similar 
works  in  Europe,  although  the  wages  of  labour  are  two 
or  three  times  higher  than  on  the  old  continent.  The 
canals  constructed  by  the  States  are,  nevertheless,  pretty 
weir  finished;  their  dimensions  are  less  that  those  of  our 
canals,  but  greater  than  those  of  England ;  the  locks  are 
almost  always  of  hewn  stone.*  The  bridges,  viaducts, 
and  aqueducts  are  generally  wooden  superstructures  rest- 
ing on  abutments  and  piers  of  common  masonry.  The 
river-dams  are  always  of  wood.  The  railroads  constructed 
by  the  States,  those  of  Pennsylvania  in  particular,  have 
been  built  at  a  great  expense ;  they  have  a  double  track 
with  stone  viaducts  and  some  tunnels  ;  the  rails  are  wholly 
of  iron,  resting  on  stone  blocks  or  sleepers.  The  Lowell 


*  On  some  of  the  canals  the  locks  are  partly  of  wood  and  partly  of  stone ; 
these  composite  locks  are  economical  and  easily  kept  in  repair,  and  deserve 
to  be  introduced  in  other  countries.  On  many  canals  the  locks  are  wholly 
of  wood. 


270  LETTER  XXI. 

railroad  company  also  wished  to  have  their  road  constructed 
in  the  most  solid  manner,  and  have  displayed  a  luxury  of 
granite,  which,  if  not  injurious,  is  certainly  superfluous. 
The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  has  two  tracks,  but  except 
for  a  short  distance  is  on  wood.  In  the  Northern  States 
and  near  the  large  towns  most  of  the  railroads  have  an 
iron  edge  rail  and  a  roadway  prepared  for  two  tracks,  but 
with  only  one  track  laid.  Such  are  the  Worcester,  Prov- 
idence, and  Amboy  railways,  and  such  will  be  the  Phila- 
delphia and  Reading  road  ;  but  the  rails  rest  upon  wooden 
cross-pieces,  which,  independently  of  their  cheapness,  have 
some  advantage  over  the  stone  sleepers,  in  regard  to 
wear  of  the  cars,  superior  ease  of  motion,  and  greater  faci- 
lity of  repairs.  Those  railroads  in  the  North  on  which 
there  is  less  travel,  and  which  are  more  remote  from  the 
large  towns,  and  all  those  of  the  South,  have  but  a  single 
track,  with  no  preparation  for  a  second,  and  consist  of  an 
iron  bar,  about  two  inches  wide  and  half  an  inch  thick, 
resting  on  longitudinal  sleepers. 

On  most  of  the  American  railroads,  the  inclinations  are 
much  greater  than  what  in  Europe  are  usually  considered 
the  maxima.  A  rise  of  35  feet  to  the  mile,  for  instance, 
seems  moderate  to  American  engineers,  and  even  50  feet 
does  not  frighten  them.  Experience  has  shown  that  these 
inclinations,  the  latter  of  which  is  double  of  the  maximum 
established  by  our  engineers,  do  not  endanger  the  safety 
of  travellers.  They  do,  indeed,  diminish  the  rate  of  speed, 
unless  additional  power  is  applied  at  certain  points,  to 
increase  the  force  of  traction ;  but  the  Americans  think 
that  these  inconveniences  are  more  than  overborne  by  the 
reduction  of  the  first  cost  of  construction.  The  curves 
are  also  greater  ;  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  on 
which  locomotives  are  used,  there  are  several  with  a  radius 
of  400  or  500  feet,  but  the  consequence  is,  that  on  this 
road  the  mean  rate  of  speed  does  not  exceed  12  or  13  miles 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  271 

an  hour,  only  half  as  great  as  that  on  the  Liverpool 
railroad,  but  twice  as  great  as  that  of  a  coach  on  an  ordi- 
nary road,  tn  general,  however,  the  American  engineers 
endeavour  to  avoid  curves  of  less  than  1000  feet  radius. 
In  France  the  Board  of  Public  Works  (Fonts  et  chaussees), 
in  their  surveys  and  plans,  have  fixed  upon  2.700  feet  as 
the  minimum. 

On  some  of  the  American  railroads,  however,  even  the 
rules  of  European  science  have  been  exceeded ;  on  the 
Lowell  railroad  the  minimum  radius  is  3,000  feet ;  on  the 
Boston  and  Providence  railroad  there  is  no  curve  of  a  less 
radius  than  6,000  feet.  The  rate  of  velocity  on  the 
American  railroads  is  as  various  as  the  manner  of  their 
construction,  and  the  amount  of  their  inclinations  and 
curvatures.  On  the  Boston  and  Lowell  road  the  rate  is 
nearly  25  miles  an  hour,  on  the  Boston  and  Providence 
and  Worcester  roads  it  is  about  20  miles  ;  on  the  Camden 
and  Amboy  railroad  the  mean  velocity  has  been  reduced 
to  15  miles ;  on  the  Charleston  and  Augusta  road,  it  is 
only  about  12,  and  it  is  still  less  on  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  railway. 

One  of  the  chief  means  of  economy  in  the  construction 
of  these  works  in  this  country,  is  the  use  of  wood  for 
bridges.  The  Americans  are  unequalled  in  the  art  of  con- 
structing wooden  bridges ;  those  of  Switzerland,  about 
which  so  much  as  been  said,  are  clumsy  and  heavy  com- 
pared with  theirs.  The  American  bridges  have  arches  of 
100  and  200  feet  span,*  and  they  are  not  less  remarkable 
for  their  cheapness,  than  for  their  boldness.  The  bridge 
over  the  Susquehanna  at  Columbia  is  6,000  feet  long  and 
cost  130,000  dollars ;  it  is  roofed  over,  has  two  carriage- 

*  The  bridge  over  the  Schuylkill  at  Philadelphia  consists  of  a  single 
arch  of  300  feet  span.  [This  beautiful  structure  has  lately  been  destroyed 
by  fire. — TRANSL.] 


272  LETTER  XXI. 

ways  and  two  side-ways  for  foot  passengers.  In  general 
the  wooden  superstructure  of  a  covered  bridge,  with  a 
double  carriage  way,  may  be  built  at  the  rate  of  8,000  to 
14,000  dollars,  according  to  the  locality  and  the  character 
of  the  work,  per  600  feet ;  a  similar  structure  with  us 
would  be  built  of  hewn  stone,  and  would  cost  at  least 
200,000  to  300,000  dollars.  The  masonry  is  generally  of 
uncut  stone,  or  of  undressed  hewn  stone,  and  is  not,  there- 
fore, expensive.  Three  different  plans  are  followed  in  the 
construction  of  bridges ;  one  is  that  of  a  carpenter  Burr,  a 
second  that  of  Col.  Long,  and  the  third,  which  is  the  new- 
est, most  interesting,  and  most  suitable  for  railroads,  on 
account  of  its  firmness,  is  that  of  Mr  Town ;  they  are  all 
remarkable  for  requiring  scarcely  any  iron.  There  are, 
however,  some  bridges  of  hewn  stone  on  the  American 
railroads ;  such  is  the  Thomas  Viaduct  over  the  Patapsco, 
on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  wholly  of  fine  granite  ; 
it  is  700  feet  long,  and  cost  only  120,000  dollars,  although 
it  has  two  road-ways,  and  is  60  feet  high. 

The  greatest  difficulty  which  the  Americans  encountered 
in  the  execution  of  their  public  works,  was  not  to  procure 
the  necessary  capital,  but  to  find  men  capable  of  directing 
operations.  In  this  respect  also,  New  York  has  done  the 
Uraon  signal  service  ;  the  engineers,  who  were  formed  by 
the  construction  of  the  Erie  canal,  have  diffused  the  bene- 
fits of  the  experience  acquired  in  that  work,  over  the 
whole  country.  Mr  Wright,  the  most  eminent  among 
them,  and  still  the  most  active  of  American  engineers, 
notwithstanding  his  advanced  age,  has  been  engaged  in 
the  superintendence  of  an  inconceivable  number  of  under- 
takings.* His  name  is  associated  with  the  construction 

*  At  this  very  time,  Mr  Wright,  in  spite  of  his  60  years,  is  directing  in 
person  the  Harlaem  railroad,  the  great  New  York  and  Erie  road,  the  great 
work  of  connecting  the  James  and  Kanawha,  by  a  railroad  and  canal,  the 
works  going  on  along  the  St.  Lawrence  in  Upper  Canada,  750  miles  further 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  273 

of  canals  from  the  Chesapeake  to  the  Ohio,  from  the  Dela- 
ware to  the  Chesapeake,  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Delaware, 
from  the  James  to  the  Kanawha,  on  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  even  on  the  Welland,  as  well  as  with  those  of  the 
railroads  just  mentioned.  Within  the  last  ten  years  the 
number  of  able  engineers  in  the  United  States  has  become 
considerable,  and  they  have  written  the  records  of  their 
skill  and  science  on  the  soil  of  their  country.  General 
Bernard  contributed  not  a  little  to  this  result,  by  carrying 
with  him  into  the  New  World  the  most  improved  processes 
of  European  art,  and  setting  an  example  of  their  applica- 
tion. Mr  Moncure  Robinson,  also  a  pupil  of  the  French 
schools  of  science,  who  excels  in  the  art  of  combining 
great  economy  with  great  solidity  and  neatness  of  execu- 
tion, has  constructed  the  inclined  planes  of  the  Portage 
Railroad  over  the  Alleghany,  and  has  built  the  Chester- 
field, Petersburg  and  Roanoke,  the  Little  Schuylkill,  and 
the  Winchester  railroads  ;  he  is,  at  present,  engaged  on  the 
Pottsville  and  Sunbury,  the  Philadelphia  and  Reading, 
and  the  Fredericksburg  and  Richmond  roads.  Major  Mc- 
Neil has  just  finished  the  Boston  and  Providence  railway, 
and  is  engaged  on  the  Stonington  and  the  Baltimore  and 
Susqnehanna  roads.  Mr  Douglass,  after  having  completed 
the  Morris  canal,  and  the  Brooklyn  and  Jamaica  railroad, 
is  preparing,  for  the  coming  season,  the  operations  on  the 
New  York  water-works.  Mr  Fessenden,  who  has  executed 
the  Worcester  railroad,  is  now  engaged  on  the  Eastern  and 
Western  railroads  on  the  right  and  left  of  Boston.  Mi- 
Knight,  the  principal  engineer  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railroad,  is  occupied  in  devising  plans  for  topping  the  Alle- 

north,  and  the  railway  from  Havana  to  Guines  in  the  islands  of  Cuba. 
The  aggregate  length  of  all  these  works  is  870  miles.  The  most  eminent 
engineers  have  always  several  works  under  their  direction  at  once ;  it  is 
understood,  of  course,  that  they  are  aided  by  skilful  and  intelligent  assistants' 
who  do  most  of  the  work. 

35 


274  LETTER  XXI. 

ghanies.  The  late  Mr  Canvass  White  assisted  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  Louisville  and  Portland  canal,  and  had 
finished  the  fine  canal  from  the  Raritan  to  the  Delaware, 
not  long  before  his  death.  Mr  Allen  has  built  the  Charles- 
ton and  Augusta  railroad.  Mr  Jervis,  who  is  now  directing 
a  part  of  the  great  works  of  canalisation  in  New  York, 
constructed  the  Carbondale  and  Honesdale  road. 

To  supply  the  want  of  men  of  science,  demanded  by 
the  spirit  of  enterprise,  the  Federal  government  authorises 
the  officers  of  the  engineer  corps  and  of  the  topographical 
engineers  to  enter  into  the  service  of  the  companies.  It 
also  employs  them  itself,  in  surveying  routes  and  preparing 
plans,  or  constructing  works  on  its  own  account.  General 
Gratiot,  the  chief  engineer,  therefore,  performs  the  duties 
of  president  of  a  board  of  public  works  (directeur-general 
desponts  et  chaussees].  Cols.  Albert  and  Kearney  of  the 
topographical  engineers,  take  an  active  part  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  great  canal  from  the  Chesapeake  to  the 
Ohio,  of  which  the  Federal  government  is  the  principal 
shareholder.  Capt.  Turnbull  superintends  the  canal  from 
Georgetown  to  Alexandria ;  Capt.  Delafield  the  works  on 
the  National  Road,  and  Capt.  Talcott  the  improvements  of 
the  navigation  of  the  Hudson.  Col.  Long  passes  from 
route  to  route,  and  conducts  at  one  time  the  surveys  from 
Memphis  to  Savannah,  at  another  those  from  Portland  to 
Montreal  and  Q,uebec.  On  the  other  hand,  architects  be- 
come engineers,  and  Mr  Strickland  of  Philadelphia,  and 
Mr  Latrobe  of  Baltimore,  superintend  the  construction  of 
the  railroad  between  these  two  cities ;  and  even  simple 
merchants  take  upon  themselves  the  responsibility  of  great 
works,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr  Jackson  of  Boston,  who  is  in 
fact,  chief  engineer  of  the  Lowell  railroad. 

The  spectacle  of  a  young  people,  executing,  in  the  short 
space  of  fifteen  years,  a  series  of  works,  which  the  most 
powerful  States  of  Europe  with  a  population  three  or  four 


INTERCOMMUNICATION.  275 

times  as  great,  would  have  shrunk  from  undertaking,  is  in 
truth  a  noble  sight.  The  advantages  which  result  from 
these  enterprises  to  the  public  prosperity  are  incalculable, 
and  the  political  effects  are  not  less  important.  These  nu- 
merous routes,  which  are  traversed  with  so  much  ease  and 
speed,  will  contribute  to  the  maintenance^of  the  Union 
more  than  a  regularly  balanced  national  representation. 
When  New  York  shall  be  only  six  or  eight  days  -from 
New  Orleans,  not  merely  for  a  class  of  the  rich  and  privi- 
leged, but  for  every  citizen,  every  labourer,  a  separation 
will  be  impossible.  Distance  will  be  annihilated,  and  this 
colossuSj  ten  times  greater  than  France,  will  preserve  its 
unity  without  an  effort.* 

It  is  impossible  not  to  turn  back  my  thoughts  to  Europe, 
and  to  make  a  comparison  by  no  means  favorable  to  the 
great  kingdoms  which  occupy  it.  The  partisans  of  the 
monarchical  principle  maintain,  that  it  is  as  powerful 
in  promoting  the  greatness  and.  welfare  of  peoples,  and 
the  progress  of  the  human  race,  as  the  principle  of  indepen- 
dence and  self-government,  which  prevails  on  this  side  the 
Atlantic.  For  myself,  I  believe  them  to  be  in  the  right ; 
but  it  is  necessary  that  some  tangible  proofs  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  their  opinion  should  be  given,  if  we  do  not 
wish  that  the  contrary  doctrine  should  make  proselytes. 
It  is  by  the  fruits  that  the  tree  must  be  judged.  Now  the 
European  governments  dispose  of  the  property  and  the 


*The  lowest  rate  of  speed  on  a  railroad  can  be  hardly  less  than  15  miles 
an  hour,  or  about  three  times  greater  than  the  ordinary  speed  of  the  stage- 
coaches in  France  and  America.  At  this  rate,  a  country  with  railroads, 
nine  times  larger  than  France,  would  be  on  the  same  footing  in  respect  to 
intercommunication,  as  France  without  railroads  ;  supposing  a  velocity  of 
25  miles  an  hour,  or  five  times  greater  than  that  of  the  coaches,  the  propor- 
tion would  then  stand  as  one  to  twentyfive,  and  a  territory  four  and  a  half 
times  greater  than  western  Europe,  or  five  times  greater  than  that  included 
within  the  limits  of  the  27  States,  would  be  as  easily  and  as  promptly  admin- 
istered as  France  is  at  present. 


276  LETTER  XXII. 

persons  of  more  than  250  millions  of  men,  that  is,  of  a 
population  twenty  times  more  numerous  than  that  of  the 
United  States  at  the  time  these  great  works  were  begun. 
The  extent  of  territory  which  demands  their  care,  is  not 
quite  four  times  as  great  as  that  at  present  occupied  by  the 
States  and  the  organised  Territories.  The  millions  which 
the  European  nations  raise  so  easily  for  war,  that  is  to  say, 
to  destroy  and  slaughter  each  other,  would  not  certainly 
be  wanting  to  their  princes  for  the  execution  of  useful 
enterprises.  The  latter  have  only  to  will  it,  and  all  the 
peoples  of  Europe  will  be  so  completely  blended  together 
in  interests,  feelings,  and  opinions,  that  the  whole  conti- 
nent would  be  like  a  single  state,  and  a  European  war 
would  be  looked  upon  as  no  less  sacrilegious  than  a  civil 
war.  By  putting  off  the  day  of  these  useful  works,  do 
not  the  sovereigns  give  countenance  to  the  reasonings  of 
those,  who  assert  that  the  cause  of  kings  is  irreconcileable 
with  the  cause  of  nations  ? 


LETTER   XXII. 

LABOUR. 

LANCASTER,  (PENNSYLVANIA,)  JULY  20, 1835. 

THERE  can  be  no  success  without  special  devotion  to 
some  one  end  ;  individual  or  nation,  to  be  successful  and 
prosperous,  beware  of  attempting  every  thing.  Human 
nature  is  finite,  and,  like  it,  you  must  set  some  bounds  to 
your  wishes  and  efforts.  Learn  how  to  check  yourself  and 
to  be  content,  is  the  precept  of  wisdom.  If  it  is  a  wise  rule, 


LABOUR.  277 

then  are  the  Americans,  at  least  partially,  wise,  for  they 
practise  it  partially.  In  general,  the  American  is  little 
disposed  to  be  contented  ;  his  idea  of  equality  is  to  be 
inferior  to  none,  but  he  endeavours  to  rise  only  in  one 
direction.  His  only  means,  and  the  object  of  his  whole 
thought,  is  to  subdue  the  material  world,  or,  in  other 
words,  it  is  industry  in  its  various  branches,  business, 
speculation,  work,  action.  To  this  sole  object  every  thing 
is  made  subordinate,  education,  politics,  private  and  public 
life.  Every  thing  in  American  society,  from  religion  and 
morals  to  domestic  usages  and  daily  habits  of  life,  is  bent 
in  the  direction  of  this  common  aim  of  each  and  all.  If 
there  are  some  exceptions  to  this  general  rule,  they  are 
few,  and  may  be  referred  to  two  causes  ;  first,  American 
society,  exclusive  as  it  is,  is  not  destined  to  remain  forever 
imprisoned  in  this  narrow  circle,  and  it  already  contains 
the  germs  of  its  future  condition  ages  hence,  whatever 
that  may  be  ;  and  secondly,  human  nature,  although 
bounded,  is  not  exclusive,  and  no  force  in  the  world  can 
stifle  its  eternal  protest  against  exclusiveness  in  taste,  insti- 
tutions, and  manners.  Speculation  and  business,  work 
and  action,  these,  then,  under  various  forms,  make  the 
exclusive  object  to  which  the  Americans  have  devoted 
themselves,  with  a  zeal  that  amounts  to  fanaticism  ;  this 
was  marked  out  for  them  by  the  finger  of  Providence,  in 
order  that  a  continent  should  be  brought  under  the  domin- 
ion of  civilisation  with  the  least  possible  delay. 

I  cannot  reflect  without  sorrow,  that  at  one  moment 
France  seem  called  to  take  part  in  this  great  mission  with 
the  two  nations,  between  whom  God  has  placed  it,  not 
less  morally  in  regard  to  character  and  institutions,  than 
physically  in  respect  to  geographical  position  ;  namely  the 
English  and  Spaniards.  Whilst  Spain,  then  queen  of  the 
world,  grasped  South  America  and  the  vast  empire  of 
Mexico,  civilised,  sword  in  hand,  the  native  tribes,  and 


278  LETTER  XXII. 

built  those  monumental  cities,  which  will  bear  witness  to 
its  genius  and  its  power,  ages  after  the  calumnies  of 
its  slanderers  shall  have  been  forgotten,  whilst  England  was 
planting  some  insignificant  colonies  on  the  barren  shore  of 
North  America,  France  was  exploring  the  vast  basin  of 
the  Father  of  Waters,  and  taking  possession  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, compared  with  which  our  Rhine,  tranquille  etfier, 
is  but  a  modest  rivulet :  we  were  crowning  with  fortifica- 
tions the  steep  rock  of  Quebec,  building  Montreal,  found- 
ing New  Orleans  and  St.  Louis,  and  here  and  there  subdu- 
ing the  rich  plains  of  Illinois.  At  that  time,  we  were 
occupying  the  most  fertile,  best  watered,  and  finest  portion 
of  North  America,  the  part  best  suited  to  become  the  seat 
of  a  magnificent  empire,  in  harmony  with  our  notions  of 
unity.  Our  engineers,  with  a  sagacity  for  which  the 
Americans  now  express  the  greatest  admiration,  had 
marked  out  by  fortresses,  the  sites  most  suitable  for  large 
towns.  Our  flag  floated  over  Pittsbug,  then  Fort  Du- 
quesne,  Detroit,  Chicago,  Erie,  then  Presqu'ile,  Kingston, 
then  Fort  Frontenac.  Michillimackinac,  Ticonderoga,  Vin- 
cennes,  Fort  Charters,  Peoria,  and  St.  John,  as  well  as 
over  the  capitals  of  Canada,  and  Louisiana.  Then  our 
language  might  have  set  up  its  claim  to  be  the  universal 
language  ;  the  French  name  bade  fair  to  become  the  first, 
not  only  in  the  world  of  ideas,  by  art  and  letters,  like  the 
Greek  ;  but  also  in  the  material  and  political  world,  by  the 
number  of  individuals  who  would  take  pride  in  bearing  it, 
by  the  immensity  of  the  territory  over  which  its  dominion 
stretched,  like  the  Roman.  Louis  XIV.  in  the  days  of  his 
deification,  in  the  Olympus  which  he  had  built  himself, 
meditated  this  noble  destiny  for  his  people  and  his  race. 
With  a  lofty  pride,  he  seemed  to  read  their  future  triumphs 
on  the  pages  of  fate.  But  there  is  left  to  us,  who  are  sep- 
arated from  him  only  by  a  single  century,  there  is  left, 
alas  !  nought  ljut  vain  and  impotent  regrets.  The  English 


LABOUR.  279 

have  driven  us  forever,  not  only  from  America,  but  also 
from  the  East  Indies,  where  that  great  prince  had  given 
us  a  footing.  The  descendants  of  our  fathers  in  Canada 
and  Louisiana  struggle  in  vain  against  the  British  flood 
that  swallows  them  up  ;  our  language  is  whelmed  in  the 
same  deluge  ;  even  our  names  for  the  cities  we  founded 
and  the  regions  we  discovered,  are  corrupted  in  the  harsh 
throats  of  our  fortunate  rivals,  and  are  too  Saxonised  to  be 
any  longer  recognised.  We  have  ourselves  forgotten,  that 
there  was  ever  a  time  when  we  could  have  claimed  to  rule 
the  New  World  ;  we  no  longer  remember  the  generous  men 
who  devoted  themselves,  that  they  might  secure  the  do- 
minion to  us.  To  preserve  the  name  of  the  heroic  La 
Salle  from  oblivion,  it  has  become  necessary  that  the 
American  Congress  should  raise  a  monument  to  his 
memory  in  the  .rotunda  of  the  Capital,  between  those  to 
William  Penn  and  John  Smith.  We  have  had  no  stone 
for  him  among  all  our  innumerable  sculptures  ;  our  paint- 
ers have  covered  miles  of  canvass  with  their  colours, 
but  have  not  drawn  a  line  in  honour  of  him. 

Meanwhile,  the  gigantic  upstarts  of  Europe. defy  us, 
elbow  us,  and  crowd  us  in.  In  vain  did  the  genius  of  the 
the  second  Charlemagne  restore  to  us  the  capital  of  the  first 
Frank  Kaisar,  and  the  finest  provinces  of  Clovis  ;  capital 
and  provinces  have  been  snatched  from  us  almost  imme- 
diately. One  step  more  downward,  and  we  should  have 
been  forever  forced  back  among  the  secondary  states,  the 
worn  out  and  decrepit  nations,  with  no  successors  to  receive 
and  sustain  with  honor  the  inheritance  of  our  fathers'  glo- 
ries. What  is  it  that  has  thus  degraded  a  great  people, 
and  robbed  it  of  its  well-earned  future  ?  In  an  absolute 
monarchy  like  ours,  it  was  enough,  that  we  should  be  rid- 
den by  such  a  prince  as  Louis  XV.,  who  had  inherited 
nothing  from  his  great  ancestor  but  his  vices  ;  it  was 
enough,  that  during  fifty  years,  France  was  the  play-thing 


280  LETTER  XXII. 

of  his  infamous  selfishness,  and  of  the  shameful  imbecili- 
ty of  his  creatures.  Absolute  governments  may  some- 
times produce1  wonders  in  a  short  space  of  time,  but  they 
are  exposed  to  cruel  reverses.  Had  we  been  the  conquer- 
ors in  America,  instead  of  having  been  conquered  by  the 
English,  what  would  have  been  the  consequences  ?  To 
judge  what  the  people  of  New  France  would  have  been,  by 
what  the  Canadians  and  the  Creoles  of  Louisiana  are,  the 
boldness  and  rapidity  of  the  progress  of  civilisation  would 
have  been  much  less  than  it  has  been.  When  it  is  pro- 
posed to  conquer  nations  on  the  field  of  battle,  France 
may  enter  the  lists  with  confidence  ;  but  when  it  is  pro- 
posed to  subdue  nature,  the  Englishman  is  our  superior. 
He  has  firmer  sinews  and  more  vigorous  muscle ;  physi- 
cally he  is  better  made  for  labour  ;  he  carries  it  on  with 
more  perseverance  and  method ;  he  becomes  interested  in 
it,  and  obstinately  bent  upon  it.  If  he  meets  any  obstacle 
in  his  task,  he  attacks  it  with  the  devouring  passion  which 
a  Frenchman  can  feel  only  in  the  presence  of  an  adversary 
in  a  human  form. 

With  what  zeal  arid  devotion  has  the  Anglo-American 
fulfilled  his  mission  as  a  pioneer  in  a  new  continent  !  Be- 
hold how  he  makes  his  way  over  the  rocks  and  precipices  • 
see  how  he  struggles  in  close  fight  with  the  rivers,  with 
the  swamps,  with  the  primeval  forests  j  see  how  he  slaugh- 
ters the  wolf  and  the  bear,  how  he  exterminates  the  Indian, 
who  in  his  eyes  is  only  another  wild  beast !  In  this  con- 
flict with  the  external  world,  with  the  land  and  the 
waters,  with  mountains  and  pestilential  marshes,  he  appears 
full  of  that  impetuosity  with  which  Greece  flung  itself 
into  Asia  at  the  voice  of  Alexander ;  of  that  fanatical  da- 
ring with  which  Mahomet  inspired  his  Arabs  for  the  con- 
quest of  the  Eastern  Empire  ;  of  that  delirious  courage 
which  animated  our  fathers  forty  years  ago,  when  they 
threw  themselves  upon  Europe.  On  the  same  rivers, 


LABOUR.  281 

therefore,  on  which  our  colonists  floated,  carelessly  sing- 
ing, in  the  bark  canoe  of  the  savage,  they  have  launched 
fleets  of  superb  steamers.  Where  we  fraternised  with  the 
Red  Skins,  sleeping  with  them  in  the  forests,  living  like 
them  on  the  chase,  travelling,  in  their  manner,  through 
ragged  trails  afoot,  the  persevering  American  has  felled  the 
aged  trees,  guided  the  plough,  inclosed  the  fields,  substi- 
tuted the  best  breeds  of  English  cattle  for  the  wild  deer, 
created  farms,  flourishing  villages,  and  opulent  cities,  dug 
canals,  and  made  roads.  Those  waterfalls  which  we  ad- 
mired as  lovers  of  the  picturesque,  and  the  height  of 
which  our  officers  measured  at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  he 
has  shut  up  for  the  use  of  his  mills  and  factories,  regard- 
less of  the  scenery.  If  these  countries  had  continued  to 
belong  to  the  French,  the  population  would  certainly  have 
been  more  gay  than  the  present  American  race  ;  it  would 
have  enjoyed  more  highly,  whatever  it  should  have  pos- 
sessed, but  it  would  have  had  less  of  comfort  and  wealth, 
and  ages  would  have  passed  away,  before  man  had  become 
master  of  those  regions,  which  have  been  reclaimed  in 
less  than  fifty  years  by  the  Americans. 

If  we  examine  the  acts  passed  by  the  local  legislatures 
at  each  session,  we  shall  find  that  at  least  three-fourths 
relate  to  the  banks,  which  give  credit  to  the  working 
men ;  to  the  establishment  of  new  religious  societies  and 
churches,  which  are  the  citadels  where  the  guardians  of 
industry  keep  watch ;  to  routes  and  means  of  communi- 
cation, roads,  canals,  railways,  bridges,  and  steamboats, 
which  facilitate  the  access  of  the  producer  to  the  markets  ; 
to  primary  instruction  for  the  use  of  the  mechanic  and  the 
labourer  ;  to  various  commercial  regulations  ;  or  to  the  in- 
corporation of  towns  and  villages,  the  work  of  these  hardy 
pioneers.  There  is  no  mention  of  an  army  ;  the  fine  arts 
are  not  so  much  as  named ;  literary  institutions  and  the 
higher  scientific  studies  are  rarely  honoured  with  notice. 
36 


282  LETTER  XXII. 

The  tendency  of  the  laws  is  above  all  to  promote  indus- 
try, material  labour,  the  task  of  the  moment.  In  the  older 
States,  they  always  profess  the  greatest  respect  for  proper- 
ty, because  the  legislature  feels  that  the  greatest  encourage- 
ment to  industry  is  to  respect  its  fruits.  They  are  especi- 
ally conservative  of  landed  property,  either  from  a  linger- 
ing remembrance  of  the  feudal  laws  of  the  mother  country, 
or  because  they  are  anxious  to  preserve  some  element  of 
stability  in  the  midst  of  the  general  change  ;  yet  the  laws 
generally  pay  less  regard  to  the  rights  of  property  than  is 
the  case  in  Europe.  Wo  to  whatever  is  inactive  and  un- 
productive, if  it  can  be  accused,  on  however  slight  a  foun- 
dation, of  resting  upon  monopoly  and  privilege  !  The 
rights  of  industry  here  have  the  precedence  of  all  others, 
efface  all  others,  and  it  is  on  this  account,  that,  except  in 
in  the  affair  of  public  credit,  in  which  the  towns  and 
States  pique  themselves  on  the  most  scrupulous  exactness 
in  fulfilling  their  engagements,  in  every  dispute  between 
the  capitalists  and  the  producer,  the  latter  has  almost 
always  the  better. 

Every  thing  is  here  arranged  to  facilitate  industry  ;  the 
towns  are  built  on  the  English  plan  ;  men  of  business, 
instead  of  being  scattered  over  the  towrir  occupy  a  parti- 
cular quarter,  which  is  devoted  exclusively  to  them,  in 
which  there  is  not  a  building  used  as  a  dwelling-house, 
and  nothing  but  offices  and  ware-houses  are  to  be  seen. 
The  brokers,  bankers,  and  lawyers  here  have  their  cells, 
the  merchants  their  counting-rooms ;  here  the  banks, 
insurance  offices,  and  other  companies,  have  their  cham- 
bers, and  other  buildings  are  filled  from  cellar  to  garret 
with  articles  of  merchandise.  At  any  hour,  one  merchant 
has  but  a  few  steps  to  go  after  any  other,  after  a  broker  or 
a  lawyer.  This,  it  will  be  seen,  is  not  according  to  the 
Paris  fashion,  by  which  a  great  deal  of  precious  time  is 
lost  by  men  of  business  in  running  after  one  another  ;  in 


LABOUR.  283 

this  respect,  Paris  is  the  worst  arranged  commercial  city 
in  the  world.  New  York  is,  however  inferior  in  this  par* 
ticular  to  London,  or  Liverpool ;  it  has  nothing  like  the 
great  docks  and  the  Commercial  House. 

The  manners  and  customs  are  altogether  those  of  a 
working,  busy  society.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  years,  a  man 
is  engaged  in  business  ;  at  twentyone  he  is  established, 
he  has  his  farm,  his  workshop,  his  counting-room,  or  his 
office,  in  a  word  his  employment,  whatever  it  may  be. 
He  now  also  takes  a  wife,  and  at  twenty  two  is  the  father 
of  a  family,  and  consequently  has  a  powerful  stimulus  to 
excite  him  to  industry.  A  man  who  has  no  profession, 
and,  which  is  nearly  the  same  thing,  who  is  not  married, 
enjoys  little  consideration  ;  he,  who  is  an  active  and  use- 
ful member  of  society,  who  contributes  his  share  to  aug- 
ment the  national  wealth  and  increase  the  numbers  of  the 
population,  he  only  is  looked  upon  with  respect  .and  favour. 
The  American  is  educated  with  the  idea  that  he  will  have 
some  particular  occupation,  that  he  is  to  be  a  farmer,  arti- 
san, manufacturer,  merchant,  speculator,  lawyer,  physician, 
or  minister,  perhaps  all  in  succession,  and  that,  if  he  is 
active  and  intelligent,  he  will  make  his  fortune.  He  has  no 
conception  of  living  without  a  profession,  even  when  his 
family  is  rich,  for  he  sees  nobody  about  him,  not  engaged 
in  business.  The  man  of  leisure  is  a  variety  of  the  human 
species,  of  which  the  Yankee  does  not  suspect  the  exist- 
ence, and  he  knows  that  if  rich  to-day,  his  father  may  be 
ruined  tomorrow.  Besides  the  father  himself  is  engaged 
in  business,  according  to  custom,  and  does  not  think  ,of 
dispossessing  himself  of  his  fortune  ;  if  the  son  wishes  to 
have  one  at  present,  let  him  make  it  himself ! 

The  habits  of  life  are  those  of  an  exclusively  working 
people.  From  the  moment  he  gets  up,  the  American  is 
at  his  work,  and  he  is  engaged  in  it  till  the  hour  of  sleep. 
Pleasure  is  never  permitted  to  interrupt  his  business  ;  pub- 


. 

LETTER  XXII. 

lie  affairs  only  have  the  right  to  occupy  a  few  moments. 
Even  meal-time  is  not  for  him  a  period  of  relaxation,  in 
which  his  wearied  mind  seeks  repose  in  the  bosom  of  his 
friends  ;  it  is  only  a  disagreeable  interruption  of  business, 
an  interruption  to  which  he  yields  because  it  cannot  be 
avoided,  but  which  he  abridges  as  much  as  possible.  In 
the  evening,  if  no  political  meeting  requires  his  attendance, 
if  he  does  not  go  to  discuss  some  question  of  public  inter- 
est, or  to  a  religious  meeting,  he  sits  at  home,  thoughtful 
and  absorbed  in  his  meditations,  whether  on  the  transac- 
tions of  the  day  or  the  projects  of  the  morrow.  He  re- 
frains from  business  on  Sunday,  because  his  religion  com- 
mands it,  but  it  also  requires  him  to  abstain  from  all 
amusement  and  recreation,  music,  cards,  dice,  or  billiards, 
under  penalty  of  sacrilege.  On  Sunday  an  American 
would  not  venture  to  receive  his  friends ;  his  servants 
would  not  consent  to  it,  and  he  can  hardly  secure  their 
services  for  himself,  at  their  own  hour,  on  that  day.  A 
few  days  since,  the  mayor  of  New  York  was  accused  by 
one  of  the  newspapers  of  having  entertained  on  Sunday 
some  English  noblemen,  who  came  out  in  their  own 
yacht  to  give  the  American  democracy  a  strange  idea  of 
British  tastes.  The  mayor  hastened  to  declare  publicly, 
that  he  was  too  well  acquainted  with  his  duties  as  a 
Christian  to  entertain  his  friends  on  the  Sabbath.  Nothing 
is  therefore,  more  melancholy  than  the  seventh  day  in 
this  country ;  after  such  a  Sunday,  the  labour  of  Monday 
is  a  delightful  pastime. 

Approach  an  English  merchant  in  his  counting-room  in 
the  morning,  and  you  will  find  him  stiff  and  dry,  answer- 
ing you  only  by  monosyllables  ;  accost  him  at  the  hour  of 
closing  the  mails,  he  will  be  at  no  pains  to  conceal  his  im- 
patience ;  he  will  dismiss  you  without  always  taking  care 
to  do  it  politely.  The  same  man,  in  his  drawing-room  in 
the  evening,  or  at  his  country-house  in  summer,  will  be 


LABOUR.  285 

full  of  courtesy  and  attention  towards  you.  The  English- 
man divides  his  time,  and  does  but  one  thing  at  once  ;  in 
the  morning  he  is  wholly  absorbed  in  business ;  in  the 
evening  he  plays  the  man  of  leisure,  reposing  and  enjoy- 
ing life  ;  he  is  a  gentleman,  having  before  his  eyes,  in  the 
English  aristocracy,  a  perfect  model  to  form  his  manners, 
and  to  teach  him  how  to  spend  -his  fortune  with  dignity 
and  grace.  The  modern  Frenchman  is  a  confused  mix- 
ture of  the  Englishman  of  the  evening  and  the  English- 
man of  the  morning  ;  in  the  morning  a  little  of  the  for- 
mer, in  the  evening  a  little  of  the  latter.  The  old  French 
model  was  the  former,  or  rather,  to  do  each  one  justice, 
was  the  original  after  which  the  English  aristocracy  has 
formed  itself.  The  American  of  the  North  and  the  North- 
west, whose  character  now  gives  the  tone  in  the  United 
States,  is  permanently  a  man  of  business,  he  is  always 
the  Englishman  of  the  morning.  You  find  many  of  the 
Englishmen  of  the  evening  on  the  plantations  of  the 
South,  and  some  are  beginning  to  be  met  with  in  the  great 
cities  of  the  North. 

Tall,  slender,  and  light  of  figure,  the  American  seems 
built  expressly  for  labour ;  he  has  ho  equal  for  despatch  of 
business.  Nobody  also  can  conform  so  easily  to  new  situ- 
ations and  circumstances  ;  he  is  always  ready  to  adopt 
new  processes  and  implements,  or  to  change  his  occupation. 
He  is  a  mechanic  by  nature  ;  among  us  there  is  not  a 
schoolboy  who  has  not  made  a  vaudeville,  a  ballad,  or  a 
republican  or  monarchial  constitution ;  in  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  there  is  not  a  labourer  who  has  not  in- 
vented a  machine  or  a  tool.  There  is  not  a  man  of  much 
consideration,  who  has  not  his  scheme  for  a  railroad,  a 
project  for  a  village  or  a  town,  or  who  has  not  in  petto 
some  grand  speculation  in  the  drowned  lands  of  Red 
River,  in  the  cotton  lands  of  the  Yazoo,  or  in  the  corn 
fields  of  Illinois.  Eminently  a  pioneer,  the  American  who 


286  LETTER  XXII. 

is  not  more  or  less  Europeanised,  the  pure  Yankee,  in  a 
word,  is  not  only  a  working  man,  but  he  is  a  migratory 
one.  He  has  no  root  in  the  soil,  he  has  no  feeling  of 
reverence,  and  love  for  the  natal  spot  and  the  paternal  roof ; 
he  is  always  disposed  to  emigrate,  always  ready  to  start  in 
the  first  steamer  that  comes  along,  from  the  place  where 
he  had  but  just  now  landed.  He  is  devoured  with  a  pas- 
sion for  locomotion,  he  cannot  stay  in  one  place  ;  he  must 
go  and  come,  he  must  stretch  his  limbs  and  keep  his  muscles 
in  play.  When  his  feet  are  not  in  motion,  his  fingers 
must  be  in  action,  he  must  be  whittling  a  piece  of  wood, 
cutting  the  back  of  his  chair,  or  notching  the  edge  of  the 
table,  or  his  jaws  must  be  at  work  grinding  tobacco. 
Whether  it  be  that  a  continual  competition  has  given  him 
the  habit,  or  that  he  has  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the 
value  of  time,  or  that  the  unsettled  state  of  everything 
around  him,  keeps  his  nervous  system  in  a  state  of  perpe- 
tual agitation,  or  that  he  has  come  thus  from  the  hands  of 
nature,  he  always  has  something  to  be  done,  he  is  always 
in  a  terrible  hurry.  He  is  fit  for  all  sorts  of  work,  except 
those  which  require  slow  and  minute  processes.  The 
idea  of  these  fills  him  with  horror ;  it  is  his  hell.  "  We 
are  born  in  haste,"  says  an  American  writer,  "  we  finish 
our  education  on  the  run ;  we  marry  on  the  wing  ;  we 
make  a  fortune  at  a  stroke,  and  lose  it  in  the  same  manner, 
to  make  and  lose  it  again  ten  times  over,  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye.  Our  body  is  a  locomotive,  going  at  the  rate  of 
twentyfive  miles  an  hour  ;  our  soul,  a  high-pressure  en- 
gine ;  oui-  life  is  like  a  shooting  star,  and  death  overtakes 
us  at  last  like  a  flash  of  lightning."* 


*  In  the  hotels  and  on  board  the  steamboats,  the  door  of  the  eating-room 
is  beset  by  a  crowd  on  the  approach  of  a  meal-time.  As  soon  as  the  bell 
sounds,  there  is  a  general  rush  into  the  room,  and  in  less  than  ten  minutes 
every  place  is  occupied.  In  a  quarter  of  an 'hour,  out  of  300  persons,  200 
have  left  the  table,  and  in  ten  minutes  more  not  an  individual  is  to  be  seen. 


LABOUR.  287 

"  Work,"  says  American  society  to  the  poor  man ; 
"  work,  and  at  eighteen  years  of  age,  although  a  mere 
workman,  you  shall  get  more  than  a  captain  in  Europe. 
You  shall  live  in  plenty,  be  well-clothed,  well-lodged,  and 
be  able  to  lay  up  a  part  of  your  earnings.  Be  attentive  to 
your  work,  be  sober  and  religious,  and  you  will  find  a 
devoted  and  submissive  partner  of  your  fortunes ;  you 
shall  have  a  more  comfortable  home,  than  many  of  the 
higher  classes  of  the  commonalty  in  Europe.  From  a 
journeyman,  you  will  become  a  master ;  you  will  have 
apprentices  and  dependents  under  you  in  turn  ;  you  shall 
have  credit  without  stint ;  you  shall  become  a  manufactu- 
rer or  agriculturist  on  a  great  scale ;  you  shall  speculate 
and  become  rich  ;  you  shall  found  a  town  and  give  it  your 
own  name  ;  you  shall  be  a  member  of  the  legislature  of 
the  State,  or  alderman  of  the  city,  and  finally  member  of 
Congress  ;  your  son  will  have  as  good  a  chance  to  be  made 
President  as  the  son  of  the  President  himself.  Work,  and 
if  the  fortune  of  business  should  be  against  you,  and  you 
fall,  you  will  soon  be  able  to  rise  again ;  for  a  failure  is 
nothing  but  a  wound  in  battle  ;  it  will  not  deprive  you  of 
the  esteem  or  confidence  of  any  one,  if  you  have  always 
been  prudent  and  temperate,  a  good  Christian  and  a  faithful 
husband." 


On  my  passage  from  Baltimore  to  Norfolk,  in  the  winter  of  1834, 1  found 
that,  notwithstanding  the  cold,  three  fourths  of  the  passengers  had  risen  at 
4  o'clock,  and  at  six,  being  almost  the  only  person  left  abed,  and  feeling 
sure  that  we  must  be  near  our  port,  I  got  up,  and  went  upon  deck;  but  it 
was  not  until  eight  o'clock,  that  we  came  in  sight  of  Norfolk.  On  mention- 
ing the  fact  afterward  to  an  American,  a  man  of  sense,  who  was  on  board 
at  the  same  time,  and  who,  wiser  than  I,  had  lain  abed  till  after  sunrise  ; 
*'  Ah,  sir,"  said  he,  "  if  you  knew  my  countrymen  better,  you  wouldn't  be 
at  all  surprised  at  their  getting  up  at  four  o'clock,  with  the  intention  of  arri- 
ving at  nine.  An  American  is  always  on  the  lookout  lest  any  of  his  neigh- 
bours should  get  the  start  of  him.  If  one  hundred  Americans  were  going 
to  be  shot,  they  would  contend  for  the  priority,  so  strong  is  their  habit  of 
competition." 


288  LETTER  XXII. 

"  Work,"  it  says  to  the  rich,  "  work,  and  do  not  stop  ta 
think  of  enjoying  your  wealth.  You  shall  increase  your 
income  without  increasing  your  expenses  ;  you  shall  en- 
large you  fortune,  but  it  will  be  only  to  increase  the 
sources  of  labour  for  the  poor,  and  to  extend  your  power 
over  the  material  world.  Be  simple  and  severe  in  your 
exterior,  but  at  home  you  may  have  the  richest  carpets, 
plate  in  abundance,  the  finest  linens  of  Ireland  and  Sax- 
ony ;  externally  your  house  shall  be  on  the  same  model 
with  all  the  others  of  the  town ;  you  shall  have  neither 
livery  nor  equipage ;  you  shall  not  patronise  the  theatre, 
which  tends  to  relax  morals  ;  you  shall  avoid  play ;  you 
shall  sign  the  articles  and  pledges  of  the  Temperance 
Society  ;  you  shall  not  even  indulge  in  good  cheer ;  you 
shall  set  an  example  of  constant  attendance  at  church  j 
you  shall  always  show  the  most  profound  respect  for  mor- 
als and  religion,  for  the  farmer  and  mechanic  around  you 
have  their  eyes  fixed  upon  you  ;  they  take  you  for  their 
pattern,  they  still  acknowledge  you  to  be  the  arbiter  of 
manners  and  customs,  although  they  have  taken  from  you 
the  political  sceptre.  If  you  give  yourself  up  to  pleasure, 
to  parade,  to  amusement,  to  dissipation  and  luxury,  they 
also  will  give  the  reins  to  their  gross  appetites  and  their 
violent  passions.  Your  country  will  be  ruined,  and  you 
will  be  ruined  with  it." 

It  is  possible  to  imagine  various  social  systems  differ- 
ently organised  but  equally  favourable,  theoretically,  to 
the  promotion  of  industry.  We  may  imagine  a  society 
organised  for  labour  under  the  influence  of  the  princi- 
ple of  authority  ;  that  is,  a  society  composed  of  a  grada- 
tion of  ranks  ;  we  may  conceive  another  constituted  under 
the  auspices  of  the  principle  of  liberty  or  independence. 
To  organise  a  priori,  for  purposes  of  industry,  any  given 
people,  it  is  necessary,  under  penalty  of  engendering  a 
Utopian  scheme,  to  consult  the  circumstances  of  its  origin 


LABUOR.  289 

and  the  condition  of  its  territory,  to  know  whence  and 
how  it  has  come,  and  whither  it  is  going.  With  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  a  scion  of  the  English  stock, 
and  thoroughly  imbued  with  Protestantism,  the  principle  of 
independence,  of  individualism,  of  competition,  in  fine, 
could  not  but  be  successful.  The  iron  hearts  of  the  Pu- 
ritans, the  Ultras  of  Protestantism,  could  not  fail  to  find 
this  principle  congenial  to  them.  It  is  owing  to  this 
course  that  the  sons  of  New  England,  which  was  peopled 
by  the  Pilgrims,  have  played  the  chief  part  in  the  occu- 
pation of  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  civilisation  of  the  West*  has  sprung  from  the 
secret  and  silent  cooperation  of  two  or  three  hundred 
thousand  young  farmers,  who  started,  each  on  his  own 
account,  from  New  England,  often  alone,  sometimes  with 
a  small  company  of  friends.  This  system  would  not 
have  succeeded  with  Frenchmen.  The  Yankee  alone  in 
the  woods,  with  no  companion  but  his  wife,  is  all-suffi- 
cient for  himself.  The  Frenchman  is  eminently  social ; 
he  could  not  bear  the  solitude  in  which  the  Yankee  would 
feel  at  his  ease.  The  latter,  although  solitary,  becomes 
excited  by  his  own  plans  and  eager  to  accomplish  them. 
The  Frenchman  cannot  become  interested  in  any  indus- 
trial enterprise  except  in  connection  with  others,  whose 
concurrence  with  him  is  evident  and  palpable,  or  rather 
he  rarely  becomes  interested  in  any  material  task,  for  he 
reserves  his  affections  and  sympathies  for  living  objects. 
It  is  quite  impossible  for  him  to  fall  in  love  with  a  clear- 
ing, to  feel  the  same  transports  at  the  success,  of  a  manu- 
facture as  for  the  safety  of  a  friend  or  the  happiness  of  a 
mistress  ;  but  he  is  capable  of  applying  himself  to  the 
task  with  ardour,  if  his  characteristic  passions,  his  thirst 


*  I  allude  particularly  to  the  Northwest,  or  that  portion  of  the  West  in 
which  slavery  does  not  exist. 

37 


LETTER  XXII. 

for  glory  and  his  spirit  of  emulation,  are  brought  into 
play  by  contact  with  human  beings.  If  it  were  proposedT 
then,  to  settle  colonies  with  Frenchmen,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  put  little  reliance  on  individual  efforts.  In 
all  things,  as  well  as  in  a  line  of  battle,  a  Frenchman 
must  feel  his  neighbour's  elbow.  Americans  might  be 
thrown  separately  upon  a  new  land,  they  would  form  lit- 
tle centres  round  which  constantly  expanding  circles  of 
population  and  cultivation  would  grow  up.  But  if  the 
new  settlers  were  Frenchmen,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
carry  with  them  a  society  ready  constituted,  social  bonds 
already  binding  them  in,  or  at  least  a  regular  social  frame- 
work, and  bolts  to  which  the  social  bonds  are  to  be  attached  ; 
that  is,  they  must  have,  at  starting,  the  great  circle  with 
its  centre  strongly  marked. 

Canada  is  almost  the  only  colony  that  has  been  founded 
exclusively  by  Frenchmen,*  and  a  complete  social  organi- 
sation was  carried  thither.  The  country  once  explored, 
the  royal  fleet  landed  the  seigneurs,  who  had  received 
fiefs  from  royal  grants,  and  who  were  followed  by  vassals 
transplanted  from  Normandy  and  Brittany,  among  whom 
the  lands  were  distributed.  At  the  same  time  an  endowed 
regular  and  secular  clergy,  with  ample  domains  and  the 
right  of  collecting  the  tithe,  was  brought  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence. Next  came  traders  and  companies,  to  whom  was 
given  the  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade  and  the  commerce  of 
the  colony.  In  a  word  the  three  orders,  the  clergy,  nobility, 
and  third  estate,  were  imported  ready  made  from  Old  France 
into  New.  The  only  thing  which  the  colonists  left  be- 
hind them,  was  the  poverty  of  the  greatest  number.  The 
system  was  a  good  one  for  that  period  ;  the  principle  of 
order  and  of  ranks,  which  prevailed  under  the  only  form 


*  In  Louisiana,  St  Domingo,  and  the  other  islands,  the  mass  of  the  popu- 
lation consisted  of  blacks. 


LABOUR.  291 

then  practicable,  was  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  the 
people.  The  proof  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact,  that 
Canada  has  flourished  under  this  system  in  which  the 
English  conquerors  have  made  no  changes,  and  the  popula- 
tion has  increased  in  the  bosom  of  general  ease.  I  have  seen 
nothing  which  more  completely  realised  the  aurea  medio* 
critas,  than  the  pretty  villages  on  the  banks  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.  They  do  not  exhibit  the  ambitious  prosperity  of 
those  of  the  United  States  ;  they  are  much  more  modest  than 
those  of  the  republic  ;  but  if  there  is  less  show,  there  is 
also  more  content  and  happiness.  Canada  reminded  me 
of  Switzerland ;  it  is  the  same  aspect  of  calm  content- 
ment and  quiet  happiness.  It  would  be  a  subject  of 
admiration  were  it  not  by  the  side  of  the  American 
colossus ;  its  rapid  growth  would  attract  attention,  were 
it  not  for  the  miraculous  expansion  of  the  United  States. 
Neither  would  it  be  right  to  assert  that  the  progress  of 
Canada  has  been  in  spite  of  the  colonial  system ;  the 
dispute  about  the  because  and  the  although  is  easily 
settled  in  this  case.  All  that  was  burdensome  about 
the  original  system  remains  untouched,  and  there  is  no 
complaint  against  it.  The  seignorial  dues,  the  tithe, 
the  -seignorial  mill,  and  the  four  banal,  still  exist  in 
full  vigour ;  and  do  not  appear  in  the  interminable 
list  of  ninetythree  grievances,  lately  drawn  up  by  the 
Canadians, 


292  LETTER  XXIII. 


LETTER  XXIII. 

MONEY. 

SUNBURY,  (PENNSYLVANIA,)  JULY  31,  1835. 

IN  a  society  devoted  to  production  and  traffic,  money 
must  be  regarded  with  other  eyes,  than  among  a  people 
of  military  spirit,  or  nourished  in  classical  studies  and  sci- 
entific speculations.  Among  the  latter,  it  must  be  looked 
upon,  theoretically  at  least,  as  vile  metal.  With  them 
honour  and  glory  are  more  powerful  and  more  common 
motives  of  action  .than  interest;  they  are  the  coin  with 
which  many  persons  are  content,  the  only  coin  which 
many  persons  are  ambitious  to  acquire.  In  an  industrious 
society,  on  the  other  hand,  money,  the  fruit  and  object  of 
labour,  is  not  to  be  despised ;  a  man's  wealth  is  the  mea- 
sure of  his  capacity  and  of  his  consideration  among  his 
fellow-citizens.  Whatever  may  be  the  cause,  the  fact  is 
certain,  that  money  is  not  the  same  thing  here  that  it  is 
with  us ;  that  it  weighs  here  where  with  us  it  has  no  weight ; 
that  it  appears  openly  here,  where  with  us  it  would  hide 
itself.  When  I  was  in  England,  I  was  surprised  at  the 
number  of  notices  in  the  docks,  threatening,  for  instance, 
a  fine  for  certain  offences,  with  a  promise  of  half  to  the 
informer.  If  a  prefect  of  the  police  should  offer  such  a 
premium  to  informers  among  us,  our  blood  would  boil  with 
indignation.  In  this  country  the  same  practice  prevails, 
and  seems  to  be  still  more  frequent.  When  a  crime  is 
committed,  the  authorities  offer  a  reward  of  100  or  200 
dollars  to  whoever  will  make  known  or  deliver  up  the 
criminal.  In  Philadelphia,  I  saw  the  governor  of  the 
State  and  the  mayor  of  the  city  endeavouring  to  outbid 
each  other  in  promises ;  a  murder  had  been  committed 


MONEY.  293 

during  one  of  the  preliminary  elections,  and  those  officers, 
who  were  of  different  parties,  endeavoured  to  prove  by 
the  greatness  of  their  offers,  that  the  opposite  party  was 
guilty  of  the  act.  In  some  cases  of  incendiarism  or  poi- 
soning, a  reward  of  1000  dollars  has  been  offered.  It 
should  be  observed,  however,  that  in  England,  out  of 
London,  and  in  this  country,  there  is  no  organised  police 
like  ours,  and  it,  therefore,  becomes  necessary  that  the 
citizens  themselves  should  act  as  a  police. 

The  maxim  here  is  that  everything  is  to  be  paid  for. 
Museums  and  institutions  for  higher  instruction  to  which 
admission  is  gratuitous,  are  here  unknown.  Nor  are  those 
unpaid  offices,  which  take  a  citizen  from  his  business,  and 
would  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  provide  for  the  support 
of  his  family,  if  he  discharged  them  faithfully,  known 
here.  The  municipal  offices  in  the  country  have  no  pay 
attached  to  them,  because  they  take  up  little  time  and 
require  little  attention,  and  because  a  man  in  the  country 
has  more  leisure  than  the  busy  inhabitant  of  the  city. 
But  in  the  cities  all  officers  are  paid,  as  soon  as  their  func- 
tions come  to  occupy  much  of  their  time.  The  custom 
of  paying  by  the  day,  which  prevails, in  England,  is  very 
general  here.  Members  of  Congress  are  paid  at  the  rate 
of  eight  dollars  a  day,  and  if  a  legislative  committee  pro- 
longs its  sessions  beyond  those  of  the  legislative  body,  the 
pay  is  continued  on  the  same  footing.  All  the  State  legis- 
latures are  paid  by  the  day.  Canal  commissioners,  who 
are  generally  men  of  some  distinction,  that  is,  rich  men, 
are  generally  paid  in  the  same  way,  an  account  being  kept 
of  the  number  of  days  they  are  employed  in  the  public 
service  ;  for  them  the  pay  amounts  merely  to  the  payment 
of  their  expenses.  Those,  however,  who  are  permanently 
occupied,  receive  an  annual  salary.  In  some  offices,  the 
incumbents  are  paid  by  fees  for  each  affair  in  which  they 
become  engaged ;  this  is  generally  the  case  with  the 


294  LETTER  XXIII. 

States'  Attorneys  and  the  Justices  of  Peace,  and  with  the 
Aldermen  in  some  of  the  cities.  The  public  officers  who 
are  regularly  employed,  such  as  the  Governors  of  the 
States,  and  the  Mayors  of  the  principal  cities  have  a  fixed 
annual  salary.  It  is  a  settled  principle  here  that  all  work 
should  stand  on  the  same  footing  with  industrial  labour, 
and  be  paid  in  the  same  mariner.  Intellectual  merchan- 
dise and  material  merchandise,  capital  and  talent,  dollars 
and  science,  are  here  placed  on  the  same  level ;  this  prac- 
tice puts  every  one  at  his  ease,  and  facilitates,  abridges, 
and  simplifies  all  operations.  No  one  feels  the  least  em- 
barrassment in  asking  for  a  service,  which  he  knows  will 
be  paid  for.  Everything  is  settled  plainly  and  easily,  be- 
cause in  an  industrious  and  prosperous  society  every  one 
has  the  power  to  be  liberal. 

Money  is  also  made  an  instrument  of  punishment,  as 
well  as  of  reward.  It  is  well  known  that,  in  England,  a 
conviction  for  adultery  enriches  the  wronged  husband  at 
the  expense  of  the  guilty  paramour,  and  the  same  practice 
would  prevail  here,  if  the  crime  were  not  extremely  rare. 
The  American  law  is  very  sparing  of  bodily  punishments 
for  simple  misdemeanours,  but  it  makes  very  free  use  of 
fines.  On  most  bridges,  there  are  notices  forbidding  the 
passing  with  horses  at  any  other  pace  than  a  walk,  under 
penalty  of  a  fine  of  2,  3,  or  5  dollars.  When  a  man  is 
suspected  or  even  accused  of  a  crime,  such  as  forgery, 
arson,  or  murder,  it  is  not  his  person,  but  his  purse  that  is 
secured ;  that  is,  instead  of  being  arrested,  he  is  obliged  to 
give  bail  in  a  sum  which  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the 
Judicial  authority.  Last  year,  while  a  convention  for 
revising  the  constitution  of  Tennessee  was  in  session  in 
Nashville,  one  of  the  members,  a  militia  general,  of  whom 
there  are  thousands  in  the  country,  a  man  of  large  property, 
and  therefore  very  respectable,  got  into  a  quarrel  with  an 
editor  of  a  newspaper,  and  uttered  violent  threats  against 


MONEY.  295 

•him.  Some  days  afterward,  in  company  with  another 
violent  fellow,  he  actually  discharged  a  pistol  at  his  adver- 
sary in  the  bar-room  of  a  hotel,  and  wounded  him  danger- 
ously. The  affair  was  brought  before  the  proper  authori- 
ties, and  the  assassin  was  admitted  to  bail,  being  thus  left 
at  full  liberty  on  depositing  some  thousand  dollars,  contin- 
uing to  sit  in  the  Convention  and  to  assist  in  the  formation 
of  the  new  constitution  of  the  State.*  So  much  tender- 
dess  towards  an  assassin,  and  similar  proceedings  which  I 
have  witnessed  relative  to  incendiaries  and  persons  guilty 
of  forgery,  recall  to  mind  those  times  of  barbarism,  in 
which  criminals  were  redeemed  at  a  price.  It  will  be 
readily  imagined,  after  what  has  been  said,  that  imprison- 
ment for  debt  is  very  abhorrent  from  American  ideas  ;  in 
fact,  a  general  clamour  has  been  raised  against  it ;  most  of 
the  States  have  already  abolished  it,  and  others  will  not 
long  delay  to  follow  the  example. 

Money,  is  therefore,  the  sanction  of  the  laws  and  of  the 
most  simple  police  regulations.  If  a.  magistrate  has  good 
reason  for  believing  that  an  individual  has  intentions  to 
break  the  peace,  instead  of  taking  him  into  custody  as  a 
measure  of  prevention,  he  requires  him  to  give  bail  for  his 
good  behaviour.  It  is  by  money-penalties,  also,  that  char- 
tered companies  are  obliged  to  conform  to  the  provisions 
of  their  charters.  It  is  by  fines,  that  even  the  magistrates 
are  punished  for  neglect  of  duty.  To  remedy  the  incon- 
veniences arising  from  the  minute  subdivision  and  disper- 
sion of  administrative  authority  in  the  New  England  States, 
resort  is  also  had  to  money.  In  that  part  of  the  Union,  the 
repair  of  roads  is  left  to  the  care  of  the  towns,  and  it  is  plain 
that  the  travel  through  a  whole  State  might  be  seriously 


*  This  man  was  finally  condemned  in  light  damages,  and  this  was  his 
only  punishment.  The  object  of  assault  survived  the  attempted  assassina- 
tion. 


296  LETTER  XXIII. 

incommoded  by  the  neglect  of  one  town.  It  is,  therefore, 
provided  by  law,  that  every  town  shall  be  responsible  for 
any  accidents  to  travellers  within  its  limits,  which  may  be 
owing  to  the  bad  state  of  the  roads  ;  it  is  not  uncommon 
to  read  accounts  in  the  newspapers  of  a  town  being  con- 
demned to  pay  a  traveller,  who  has  been  overturned  on  its 
roads  or  bridges,  500  or  1000  dollars  damages.  The  city 
of  Lowell  was  very  lately  condemned  to  pay  6,000  dollars 
to  two  travellers,  who  had  broken  their  legs  by  such  an 
accident.  The  judge  charged  that  the  plaintiffs  should 
not  only  be  reimbursed  for  the  expenses  of  the  cure,  but 
also  for  the  estimated  probable  earnings  of  their  industry 
during  their  confinement. 

Amongst  us,  it  is  not  money,  but  honour,  that  occupies 
the  most  conspicuous  place,  and  if  it  be  admitted  that  the 
sentiment  of  honour  lies  at  the  foundation  of  monarchies, 
and  if  every  thing  turn  upon  this  one  principle,  this  is  very 
well.  The  principle  of  honour  is  quite  as  good  in  every 
view,  whether  logically,  morally  or  practically  considered, 
as  the  principle  of  money.  It  is,  indeed,  more  congenial 
to  the  generosity  of  the  French  character ;  but  then  it  is 
necessary  that  the  honour  should  be  something  real,  that 
the  consideration  it  gives,  should  be  incontestable ;  it 
is  necessary  that  the  authority  which  is  the  source  of  hon- 
our, should  be  itself  respected.  If  the  supreme  authority 
is  insulted  and  despised,  public  functions  become  not  a 
source  of  consideration,  but  of  contempt.  If  jealousy  and 
suspicion  of  power  are  admitted  and  consecrated  by  the 
modern  spirit  of  legislation  and  administration,  is  it  not 
true  that  your  pretended  recompense  of  public  service  by 
the  consideration  and  dignity  they  confer,  is  a  mockery,  and 
and  that  your  whole  system  is  founded  upon  a  contradic- 
tion ?  If  royalty  still  sat  all-powerful  on  the  magnificent 
throne  of  Versailles,  amidst  its  guards  glittering  with  steel 
and  gold,  surrounded  by  the  most  brilliant  court  of  which 


MONEY.  297 

history  preserves  the  record,  and  by  the  fascinations  with 
which  the  homage  of  the  arts  invested  it ;  or  if  the  prince 
were  a  saviour  of  his  country,  raised  on  the  buckler  by  his 
victories,  and  dating  his  decrees  from  the  palace  of  vassal 
kings,  or  from  the  Scho3nbrunn  of  the  conquered  Kaisars ; 
if  he  crowned  and  uncrowned  kings,  as  our  ministers  now 
make  and  unmake  sub-prefects  ;  if  at  a  breath  of  his 
mouth,  victorious  veterans  calmly  met  death  ;  if  the  world 
did  him  homage  ;  if  he  were  the  anointed  of  the  Lord, 
the  choice  and  idol  of  the  people ;  if  you  had  yet  the 
monarchy  of  Louis  XIV.,  or  of  Napoleon,  you  would  be 
welcome  to  speak  of  consideration  and  honour  !  It  was 
then  distinction  enough  to  be  noticed  by  a  royal  look. 
The  favour  of  the  sovereign  then  secured  the  confidence, 
or  at  least  the  outward  homage  of  the  people.  The  point 
of  precedence  wag  worthy  of  being  a  subject  of  envy  in 
the  days  of  the  splendour  of  Versailles,  or  when  one  might 
lose  oneself  in  the  crowd  of  kings  in  the  Tuileries.  But 
what  does  it  signify  now-a-days,  when  royalty  has  lost 
its  poetical  attributes,  when  public  ceremonies  are  abolish- 
ed, when  there  is  no  longer  a  court  or  court-dress  ?  Titles 
have  been  profaned  and  degraded  by  the  ignorance  and 
stupidity  of  those  who  ought  to  have  supported  their  dig- 
nity, or  sullied  by  the  jealousy  of  the  commons.  As  for 
your  ribbands  you  have  been  obliged  to  scatter  them  under 
the  hoofs  of  horses.  The  system  of  honour  is,  therefore, 
gone  by ;  to  restore  it,  a  revolution  would  be  necessary  ; 
not  a  revolution  like  that  of  July,  but  a  revolution  like 
that  which  was  going  on  during  the  three  centuries  be- 
tween Luther  and  Mirabeau,  and  which,  ripe  at  last,  has 
been  shaking  both  worlds  during  the  last  fifty  years ;  a 
revolution  in  the  name  of  authority,  like  that  which  our 
fathers  accomplished  in  the  name  of  liberty. 

Among  the  sayings  attributed  to  M.  de  Talleyrand,  the 
folio  wing  is  often  quoted ;    "I  don't  know  an  American 
38 


298  LETTER  XXIII. 

that  hasn't  sold  his  horse  or  dog."  It  is  certain  that  the 
Americans  are  an  exaggeration  of  the  English,  whom  Na- 
poleon used  to  call  a  nation  of  shop-keepers.  The  Amer- 
ican is  always  bargaining  ;  he  always  has  one  bargain 
afoot,  another  just  finished,  and  several  more  in  meditation. 
All  that  he  has,  all  that  he  sees,  is  merchandise  in  his  eyes. 
The  poetical  associations  which  invest  particular  spots  or 
objects  with  a  character  of  sanctity,  have  no  place  in  his 
mind.  The  spire  of  his  village  church  is  no  more  than 
any  other  spire  to  him,  and  the  finest  in  his  view,  is  the 
newest,  the  most  freshly  painted.  To  him  a  cataract  is  a 
motive  power  for  his  machinery,  a  mill  privilege  ;  an  old 
building  is  a  quarry  of  bricks  and  stones,  which  he  works 
without  the  least  remorse.  The  Yankee  will  sell  his 
father's  house,  like  old  clothes  or  rags.  In  his  character 
of  pioneer,  it  is  his  destiny  to  attach  himself  to  nothing, 
to  no  place,  edifice,  object,  or  person,  except  his  wife,  to 
whom  he  is  indissolubly  bound  night  and  day,  from  the 
moment  of  marriage  till  death  parts  them. 

At  the  bottom,  then,  of  all  that  an  American  does,  is 
money  ;  beneath  every  word,  money.  But  it  would  be  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  he  is  not  capable  of  making  pecu- 
niary sacrifices  ;  he  is  in  the  habit  of  subscribing  to  all 
useful  objects,  and  he  does  so  without  reluctance  or  regret, 
oftener  than  we  are  accustomed  to  do,  and  more  liberally 
also  ;  but  his  munificence  and  his  donations  are  system- 
atic and  calculated.  It  is  neither  enthusiasm  nor  passion 
that  unties  his  purse  strings,  but  motives  of  policy  or  con- 
siderations of  propriety,  views  of  utility  and  regard  for  the 
public  good,  in  which  he  feels  his  own  private  interests  to 
be  involved.  The  American,  therefore,  admits  some  ex- 
ceptions to  his  general  commercial  rulo  of  conduct.  He 
gives  money,  he  attends  committee-meetings,  he  draws  up 
in  haste  a  report  or  an  opinion  ;  he  even  goes  in  person, 
at  high  speed,  to  Washington,  in  order  to  present  a  set  of 


MONEY.  299 

resolutions  to  the  President,  or  he  hastens  to  a  neighbour- 
ing city  to  attend  a  public  dinner,  and  returns  in  equal 
haste  ;  but  he  requires  in  this  case  that  the  exception  to  the 
general  rule  should  be  sharply  defined  and  the  cause 
strongly  marked,  that  the  public  interest  should  be  at  stake. 
And  he  particularly  insists  that  the  sacrifice  should  be  of 
money  only,  once  for  all,  and  that  his  time  should  be  re- 
spected. To  everything-of  a  private  nature,  to  everything 
that  takes  up  his  time  and  demands  his  attention,  he 
applies  the  mercantile  principle,  nothing  for  nothing.  He 
pays  the  services  of  others  with  dollars,  and  he  expects 
others  to  do  the  same  by  him,  because  he  looks  upon  com- 
pliments as  too  hollow  and  light  to  be  put  in  the  scale 
against  labour,  and  because  distinctions,  such  for  instance 
as  precedence,  are  unknown  and  incomprehensible  to  him. 
With  him  it  is  an  indisputable  maxim,  that  the  labourer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire.  The  ideas  of  service  and  salary  are 
so  inseparably  connected  in  his  mind,  that  in  American 
almanacs  it  is  common  to  see  the  rate  of  pay  annexed  to 
the  lists  of  public  officers.  He  is  of  opinion  that  nobody 
can  live  on  a  dry  crust  and  glory  ;  he  thinks  of  the  welfare 
of  his  wife  and  children,  of  a  provision  for  his  old  age, 
and  if  he  were  told  that  there  is  a  country  in  which  these 
considerations  are  disregarded,  for  the  purpose  of  obliging 
a  neighbour  or  paying  a  courtesy  to  a  magistrate,  such  a 
thing  would  appear  absurd  to  him. 

High  pay  is  not,  however,  consonant  with  the  spirit  of 
democracy,  because  it  is  incapable  of  discerning  its  pro- 
priety. The  mechanic  who  makes  500  dollars  a  year, 
thinks  himself  generous  towards  a  public  officer  to  whom 
he  gives  1,500  or  2,000 ;  just  as  our  citizens  of  the  mid- 
dling class  in  Paris,  who  have  an  income  of  10,000  francs, 
cannot  see  why  a  public  functionary  should  not  be  content 
with  12,000.  The  Americans  thought  that  among  them, 
as  elsewhere,  there  would  be  two  kinds  of  coin,  money 


; 

300  LETTER  XXIII. 

and  public  consideration,  and  they  were  persuaded,  on  the 
authority  of  Franklin,  that  it  would  be  easy  to  find  able 
public  officers,  whose  salary  should  chiefly  consist  in  the 
honour  of  public  station.  But  they  were  mistaken ;  for 
office  is  here  no  title  to  respect,  but  quite  the  contrary ; 
and  as  public  services  are  neither  paid  by  dollars  nor  con- 
sideration, only  a  Hobson's  choice  is  left  to  the  people. 
With  the  exception  of  a  very  small  number  of  places, 
which  the  delights- of  power  still  cause  to  be  sought  after, 
notwithstanding  the  cost  of  the  pleasure  of  commanding 
and  having  dependents  or  subordinates,  office  is  generally 
sought  for  only  by  the  floating  part  of  the  population,  which 
has  been  unsuccessful  in  business,  and  tried  one  occupation 
after  another  in  vain.  It  is  not  even,  strictly  speaking,  a 
profession,  but  rather  the  temporary  resort  of  persons  who 
have  no  settled  pursuit,  who,  as  soon  as  they  find  a  more 
eligible  employment  in  industry  or  speculation,  take  leave 
of  the  State.  The  West  Point  Academy  sends  out  about 
forty  lieutenants  for  the  army  annually ;  about  one  third 
of  these  resign  their  commissions  before  two  or  three  years 
of  service,  because  the  pay  of  the  officers,  although  much 
higher  than  with  us,  is  very  inconsiderable  compared  with 
the  profits  of  a  merchant  or  the  salary  of  an  engineer. 
The  duties  of  a  public  officer  are  generally  less  difficult 
in  the  United  States  than  in  France.  Among  us  every 
question  that  arises,  embraces  a  great  complication  of  in- 
terests, and  requires  more  knowledge.  The  powers  and 
duties  of  the  government  in  France  are  much  more  exten- 
sive and  more  various,  and  more  care  is  exacted  of  persons 
in  the  public  employ  among  us,  than  in  this  country.  Yet 
the  average  of  salaries  here  is  much  greater  than  with  us. 
When  the  Congress  and  the  States  shall  stand  in  need  of 
able  meti  for  functionaries,  they  will  do  as  the  American 
merchants  do  to  their  clerks,  they  will  pay  them.  Con- 
gress, having  lately  become  sensible  of  the  importance  of 


MONEY. 


301 


securing  the  services  of  good  naval  officers,  has  just  raised 
the  pay  of  that  corps.*  It  may  even  be  said  that  the 
number  of  office-holders  who  are  treated  with  illiberality, 
is  very  small. f  Out  of  158  persons  employed  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Treasury  department  at  Washington,  there  are 
only  5  who  receive  less  than  1,000  dollars,  and  there  are 
only  two  who  receive  more  than  2,000  ;  this  is  the  appli- 
cation of  the  principle  of  equality  to  pay.  As  the  price 
of  common  objects  of  consumption,  that  is,  bread,  meat, 
coffee,  tea,  sugar,  and  fuel,  is  generally  lower  in  the  United 
States  than  in  France,  and  especially  in  Paris,  a  salary  of 
1,500  or  2,000  dollars  is  sufficient  in  most  cases  to  support 


*  PAY  OF  OFFICERS  OF  THE  FRENCH  AND  AMERICAN  NAVIES. 


French  Navy. 

Vice  Admiral,     ....     $7,525 
Rear  Admiral,     ...     -       6,000 


American  Navy. 


Senior  Captain,  ...    -    $4,500 
Capt.  Com.  a  Squadron,   -       4,000 


Captain, 3,500 

Commander, 3,500 


Lieut.  Command.  -     - 

Lieut. 

Passed  Midship.    -    - 
Midshipman,     -     -     - 


1,800 

1,500 

750 

400 


Captain  of  Ship  of  the  Line, 

1st  class,       -    -     -    2,750 

2nd  class,     -    -    -    2,700 

,  of  Frigate,    -    -     -    2,170 

of  Corvette,      -    -     ]  ,650 

Lieut.. Command.   ....     ],150 

Lieut. 600 

Lieut,  of  Frigate,  -     -     -    -        500 

Midshipman,  1st  class,    -    -        220 

2d  class,    -     -        160 

The  gunners,  boatswain,  sail-makers,  and  carpenters  receive, 
In  a  ship  of  the  line,  750  dollars, 
For  a  Frigate,    -     -    600     " 
On  other  duty,  -     -    500     " 

In  the  French  navy  the  pay  of  corresponding  officers  is  from  400  to  200 
dollars. 

t  They  are  the  governors  of  most  of  the  States,  and  the  heads  of  the  ex- 
ecutive departments  at  Washington.  These  last  receive  only  6,000  dollars, 
and  they  are  obliged  to  keep  up  a  certain  style  of  living.  It  is  singular  that 
some  subaltern  officers  are  permitted  to  receive  enormous  fees.  Thus  the 
inspector  of  flour  in  New  York  received  in  1835,  10,000  dollars,  the  inspec- 
tor of  potash  20,000,  and  the  inspector  of  tobacco  34,500. 


302  LETTER  XXIII. 

a  family  in  comfort  and  abundance.  An  officer  of  the 
government,  who  receives  from  400  to  600  dollars  in 
Paris,  lives  only  by  practising  the  strictest  econony  if  he 
is  a  bachelor,  and  suffers  great  privations  if  he  is  a  married 
man.  At  Washington  he  would  receive  from  1,000  to 
1,200  dollars,  and  would  live  in  abundance  and  comfort, 
if  not  in  style  and  luxury.  Nor  would  he  here,  as  with 
us,  be  condemned  to  the  punishment  of  Tantalus,  for  the 
pomp  and  splendour  of  the  privileged  classes  in  the 
European  capitals  is  unknown  in  the  United  States. 
In  Paris,  the  employe  is  bespattered  with  mud  by  the  equi- 
page of  a  man  who  spends  his  20,000  dollars  a  year  •  in 
the  streets  of  Philadelphia,  he  would  elbow  a  rich  capi- 
talist who  kept  no  coach  because  he  would  not  know  what 
to  do  with  it,  and  who,  with  a  revenue  of  30,000  or 
60,000  dollars,  cannot  spend  more  than  8,000  or  10,000 
at  the  most.  The  ratio  of  conditions,  which  in  Paris  is 
as  one  to  forty,  is  here  not  more  than  one  to  eight. 

Here  the  condition  of  the  richest  merchant,  and  that  of 
a  mechanic  and  a  farmer,  are  not  essentially  different ;  the 
difference  is  merely  in  degree  and  not  in  kind.  All  have 
similar  houses,  built  on  a  similar  plan  ;  only  that  one  has 
a  front  five  or  six  feet  wider,  and  is  one  or  two  stories 
higher  than  another ;  the  distribution  of  apartments,  and 
the  furniture  are  similar.  All  have  carpets  from  the  cellar 
to  the  garret,  all  sleep  in  large  high-post  bedsteads  very 
much  like  each  other,  projecting  out  into  a  chamber  with- 
out closets,  alcoves,  or  double  door,  and  with  bare  walls ; 
only  the  carpets  of  the  one  are  coarse,  and  those  of  the  other 
are  fine,  the  bedstead  of  the  rich  is  of  mahogany,  and 
that  of  the  mechanic  of  cherry  or  walnut.  In  general 
the  table  is  served  much  alike  ;  there  is  the  same  number 
of  meals,  and  there  is  nearly  the  same  number  of  dishes. 
This  is  so  much  the  case,  that,  if  my  French  palate  had  to 
decide  between  the  dinner  of  a  great  city  hotel  (excepting 


MONEY.  303 

those  of  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore), 
and  that  of  a  country  inn,  at  which  I  should  sit  by  the 
side  of  the  blacksmith  of  the  place,  with  sooty  visage  and 
with  sleeves  rolled  up,  I  think  that  I  should  really  pro- 
nounce in  favour  of  the  latter.  This  is  especially  the  case  in 
the  North,  and  particularly  in  New  England,  the  land  of  the 
Yankees,  fn  the  South,  the  condition  of  the  planter  on 
his  estate  gains  all  that  is  taken  from  the  mass  of  the 
population,  or  the  slaves.  And  even  at  the  North,  of  late 
years,  commerce,  which  has  collected  men  into  large 
cities,  has  also  accumulated  capital  in  single  hands,  and 
created  great  fortunes.  The  inequality  of  condition  is, 
therefore,  beginning  to  manifest  itself;  the  style  of  the 
new  houses  in  Chesnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  with  their 
first  story  of  white  marble,  is  a  blow  at  equality.  The 
same  innovation  is  creeping  in  in  New  York ;  the 
anti-democratical  tendency  of  commerce  is  revealing  it- 
self.* 

It  might  be  expected  that  among  a  people  so  deeply 
absorbed  in  material  pursuits,  misers  would  abound ;  but 
it  is  not  so.  There  is  never  any  niggardliness  in  a  South- 
erner ;  it  is  sometimes  found  in  the  Yankee,  but  nowhere 
do  you  see  specimens  of  that  sordid  avarice,  of  which  ex- 
amples are  so  common  among  us.  The  American  has  too 
high  a  notion  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  to  be  wil- 

*  If  the  rich  in  the  large  towns  of  the  North  spend  eight  or  ten  times  as 
much  as  the  clerk,  it  is  not  that  they  keep  up  much  style,  or  even  that 
they- have  an  equipage.  When  would  the  husband,  always  immersed  in 
business,  or  the  wife,  occupied  with  her  household  cares,  be  able  to  use  the 
coach?  Suppose  they  had  time  to  use  it,  and  the  public  opinion  would  not 
be  offended  by  it,  what  could  one  do  with  an  equipage  in  the  streets  of  Phil- 
adelphia ?  The  principal  difference  in  the  expenditure  of  the  two  classes, 
is  that  the  rich  man  now  and  then  gives  a  ball,  and  piques  himself  on  his 
parade,  which  the  indulgent  democracy  pardons  for  one  day ;  this  'sort  of 
luxury  is  much  more  expensive  here  than  with  us,  and  it  does  not  require  a 
very  brilliant  rout,  in  small  houses,  in  which  the  company  is  received  in  two 
rooms  20  feet  by  25,  to  cost  700  or  800  dollars. 


304  LETTER  XXIII. 

ling  to  deprive  himself  and  his  children  of  those  comforts 
which  soften  the  asperities  of  life ;  he  respects  his 
own  person  too  much  not  to  surround  it  with  a  certain 
degree  of  decency.  Harpagon  is  never  to  be  met  with  in 
the  United  States,  and  yet  Harpagon  is  not  by  a  great 
deal  the  most  wretchedly  degraded  miser,  that  European 
society  exhibits.  The  American  is  devoured  with  a 
passion  for  money,  not  because  he  finds  a  pleasure  in 
hoarding  it  up,  but  because  wealth  is  power,  because  it  is 
the  lever  by  which  he  governs  nature.  I  ought  also  to  do  the 
Americans  justice  on  another  point.  I  have  said  that  with 
them  every  thing  was  an  affair  of  money,  and  yet  there  is 
one  thing,  which  among  us,  a  people  of  lively  affections, 
prone  to  love,  and  generous  by  nature,  takes  the  mercan- 
tile character  very  decidedly,  and  which  among  them  has 
nothing  of  this  character ;  I  mean  marriage.  We  buy  a 
woman  with  our  fortune,  or  we  sell  ourselves  to  her  for 
her  dower.  The  American  chooses  her,  or  rather  offers 
himself  to  her,  for  her  beauty,  her  intelligence,  or  her 
amiable  qualities,  and  asks  no  other  portion.  Thus, 
whilst  we  make  a  traffic  of  what  is  most  sacred,  these 
shop-keepers  exhibit  a  delicacy  and  loftiness  of  feeling, 
which  would  have  done  honor  to  the  most  perfect  models 
of  chivalry.  It.  is  to  industry  that  they  are  indebted  for 
this  superiority.  Our  idle  cits,  not  being  able  to  increase 
their  patrimony,  are  obliged  in  taking  a  wife  to  calculate 
her  portion,  in  order  to  decide  if  their  joint  income  will 
be  enough  to  support  a  family.  The  American,  having 
the  taste  and  the  habits  of  industry,  is  sure  of  being  able 
to  provide  amply  for  his  household,  and  is  therefore,  free 
from  the  necessity  of  making  this  melancholy  calculation. 
Is  it  possible  to  doubt, %  that  a  race  of  men,  which  thus 
combines  in  a  high  degree  the  most  contradictory  qualities, 
is  reserved  for  lofty  destinies  ? 


SPECULATIONS.  305 


LETTER   XXIV. 
SPECULATIONS. 

JOHNSTOWN,  (PENN.)  AUG.  4,  1835.' 

THE  present  aspect  of  this  country  is,  in  a  high  degree, 
calculated  to  encourage  the  friends  of  peace  in  their  hopes 
and  wishes  with  respect  to  a  rupture  with  France. 
The  Americans  of  all  parties  conduct  themselves  in  their 
private  affairs  like  men  who  are  convinced  that  business 
will  experience  no  interruption  from  that  quarter.  A  per- 
son who  landed  at  New  York,  Boston,  or  Philadelphia,  on 
the  day  that  news  was  received  of  the  effect  produced  in 
France  by  the  President's  message,  and  had  since  played 
Epimenides,  would  not  now  recognise  the , United  States  ; 
the  most  unlimited  confidence  has  succeeded  to  the  gene- 
ral anxiety.  Every  body  is  speculating,  and  every  thing 
has  become  an  object  of  speculation.  The  most  daring 
enterprises  find  encouragement ;  all  projects  find '  subscri- 
bers. From  Maine  to  the  Red  River,  the  whole  country 
has  become  an  immense  rue  Quincampoix.  Thus  far 
every  one  has  made  money,  as  is  always  the  case  when 
speculation  is  in  the  ascendant.  And  as  soon-come  soon 
goes,  consumption  is  enormously  increased,  and  Lyons 
feels  the  effect.  I  said  that  every  thing  has  become  an 
object  of  speculation  ;  I  was  mistaken.  The  American, 
essentially  practical  in  his  views,  will  never  speculate  in 
tulips,  even  at  New  York,  although  the  inhabitants  of 
that  city  have  Dutch  blood  in  their  veins.  The  principal 
objects  of  speculation  are  those  subjects  which  chiefly  oc- 
cupy the  calculating  minds  of  the  Americans,  that  is  to 
say,  cotton,  land,  city  and  town  lots,  banks,  railroads. 

The  amateurs  in  land  at  the  north,  dispute  with  each 
39 


306  LETTER  XXIV. 

other  the  acquisition  of  the  valuable  timber-lands  of  that 
legion  ;  at  the  southern  extremity,  the  Mississippi  swamps, 
and  the  Alabama  and  the  Red  River  cotton  lands,  are  the 
subject  of  competition,  and  in  the  West,  the  corn  fields  and 
pastures  of  Illinois  and  Michigan,  The  unparallelled 
growth  of  some  new  towns  has  turned  the  heads  of  the 
nation,  and  there  is  a  general  rush  upon  all  points 
advantageously  situated ;  as  if,  before  ten  years,  three 
or  four  Londons,  as  many  Parises,  and  a  dozen  Liverpools, 
were  about  to  display  their  streets  and  edifices,  their  quays 
crowded  with  warehouses,  and  their  harbours  bristling  with 
masts,  in  the  American  wilderness.  In  New  York  build- 
ing lots*  have  been  sold  sufficient  for  a  population  of  two 
million  souls,  and  at  New  Orleans,  for  at  least  a  million. 
Pestilential  marshes  and  naked  precipices  of  rock  have 
been  bought  and  sold  for  this  purpose.  In  Louisiana,  the 
quagmires,  the  bottomless  haunts  of  alligators,  the  lakes 
and  eypress-swamps,  with  ten  feet  of  water  or  slime,  and 
in  the  North,  the  bed  of  the  Hudson  with  20,  30,  or  50 
feet  of  water,  have  found  numerous  purchasers. 

Take  the  map  of  the  United  States  ;  place  yourself  on 
the  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  which  twenty  years  ago  was  a 
solitary  wilderness  ;  ascend  it  to  its  head  ;  pass  thenoe  to 
Lake  St.  Clair,  and  from  that  lake  push  on  towards  the 
north,  across  Lake  Huron  :  go  forward  still,  thread  your 
way  through  Lake  Michigan,  and  advance  southwards  till 
the  water  fails  you  ;  here  you  will  find  a  little  town  by 
the  name  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  out-posts  of  our  indefati- 
gable countrymen  when  they  had  possession  of  America. 
Chicago  seems  destined,  at  some  future  period,  to  enjoy 
an  extensive  trade  ;  it  will  occupy  the  head  of  a  canal, 
which  is  to  connect  the  Mississippi  with  the  lakes  and  the 
St.  Lawrence  ;  but  at  present  it  hardly  numbers  two  or 

*  A  lot  is  generally  from  22  to  25  feet  front,  and  from  80  to  100  deep. 


SPECULATIONS.  307 

three  thousand  inhabitants.  Chicago  has  in  its  rear  a 
country  of  amazing  fertility  ;  but  this  country  is  yet  an 
uncultivated  wild.  Nevertheless  the  land  for  ten  leagues 
round  has  been  sold,  resold,  and  sold  again  in  small  sec- 
tions, not.  however,  at  Chicago,  but  at  New  York,  which, 
by  the  route  actually  travelled,  is  2,000  miles  distant. 
There  you  may  find  plans  of  Chicago  lots  numerous 
enough  for  300,000  inhabitants  ;  this  is  more  than  any 
city  of  the  New  World. at  present  contains.  More  than 
one  buyer  will,  probably,  esteem  himself  fortunate,  if,  on 
examination,  he  shall  find  not  more  than  six  feet  of  water 
on  his  purchase. 

Speculations  in  railroads  have  hardly  been  less  wild 
than  those  in  land.  The  American  has  a  perfect  passion 
for  railroads  ;  he  loves  them,  to  use  Camille  Desmoulins' 
expression  in  reference  to  Mirabeau,  as  a  lover  loves  his 
mistress.  It  is  not  merely  because  his  supreme  happiness 
consists  in  that  speed  which  annihilates  time  and  space ; 
is  also  because  he  perceives,  for  the  American  always  rea- 
sons, that  this  mode  of  communication  is  admirably  adapt- 
ed to  the  vast  extent  of  his  country,  to  its  great  maritime 
plain,  and  to  the  level  surface  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  and 
because  he  sees  all  around  him  in  the  native  forest,  abun- 
dance of  materials  for  executing  these  works  at.  a  cheap 
rate.  This  is  the  reason,  why  railroads  are  multiplied  in 
such  profusion,  competing  not  only  with  each  other,  but  en- 
tering into  a  rivalry  with  the  rivers  and  canals.  If  the  works 
now  in  process  of  construction  are  completed  (and  I  think 
that  they  will  be,)  there  will  be,  within  two  years,  three 
distinct  routes  between  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  exclu- 
sive of  'the  old  post-route  ;  namely,  two  lines  consisting 
wholly  of  railroads,  and  a  third  consisting  in  part  of  steam- 
boats, and  in  part  of  railroad.  The  line  that  has  the  advantage 
of  half  an  hour  over  its  rivals,  will  be  sure  to  crush  them. 

The  manner  of  establishing  banks  here  is  this ;  an  act 


308  LETTER  XXIV. 

authorising  the  opening  of  books  in  a  public  place,  for  sub- 
scription of  stock,  is  obtained  from  the  legislature,  and  all 
persons  have  the  right  to  subscribe  on  payment  of  a  cer- 
tain sum,  say  five,  ten,  or  twenty  per  cent,  on  the  amount 
of  stock  taken  by  them  respectively.  The  affair  of  open- 
ing the  books  becomes  a  matter  of  the  greatest  moment. 
In  France,  we  form  lanes  (on  fait  queue]  round  the  doors 
of  the  theatres  ;  but  in  the  United  States,  during  the  last 
year,  the  doors  of  the  sanctuaries  in  which  the  books  for 
registering  the  subscriptions  for  bank-stock  have  been  de- 
posited, have  been  thronged  with  the  most  intense  solici- 
tude. In  Baltimore,  the  books  were  opened  for  a  new 
bank,  the  Merchants'  Bank,  with  a  capital  of  two  millions  ; 
the  amount  subscribed  was  nearly  fifty  million.  At 
Charleston,  for  a  bank  of  the  same  capital,  ninety  millions 
were  subscribed,  and  as  the  act  in  this  instance  required 
the  advance  of  25  per  cent.,  the  sum  actually  paid  in,  in 
paper  money  to  be  sure,  but  yet  in  current  bills  at  par, 
amounted  to  twentytwo  and  a  half  millions,  or  more  than 
eleven  times  the  capital  required.  This  rage  for  bank- 
stock  is  easily  explained.  Most  of  the  banks  here  are,  in 
fact,  irresponsible  establishments,  which  have  the  privilege 
of  coining  money  from  paper.  The  share-holders,  by 
means  of  a  series  of  ingenious  contrivances,  realise  8,  9, 
10,  and  12  per  cent,  interest  on  capital,  which  they  do  not 
actually  hold ;  and  this  in  a  country  where  the  five  per 
cents,  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  and  the  six  per 
cents,  of  Ohio  are  at  110  to  115.  The  Ohio  sixes! 
What  would  the  heroes  of  Fort  Duquesne  think  of  that, 
if  they  should  come  back  ? 

Most  of  these  speculations  are  imprudent,  many  of  them, 
are  foolish.  The  high  prices  of  to-day  may  and  needs 
must  be  followed  by  a  crisis  tomorrow.  Great  fortunes, 
and  many  of  them  too,  have  sprung  out  of  the  earth  since 
the  spring  ;  others  will,  perhaps,  return  to  it  before  the  fall 


SPECULATIONS.  309 

of  the  leaf.  The  American  concerns  himself  little  about 
that ;  violent  sensations  are  necessary  to  stir  his  vigorous 
nerves.  Public  opinion  and  the  pulpit  forbid  sensual  grati- 
fications, wine,  women,  and  the  display  of  a  princely 
luxury ;  cards  and  dice  are  equally  prohibited  ;  the  Ameri- 
can, therefore,  has  recourse  to  business  for  the  strong  emo- 
tions which  he  requires  to  make  him  feel  life.  He  launches 
with  delight  into  the  ever-moving  sea  of  speculation.  One 
day,  the  wave  raises  him  to  the  clouds ;  he  enjoys  in  haste 
the  moment  of  triumph.  The  next  day  he  disappears 
between  the  crests  of  the  billows ;  he  is  little  troubled  by 
the  reverse,  he  bides  his  time  coolly,  and  consoles  himself 
with  the  hope  of  better  fortune.  In  the  midst  of  all  this 
speculation,  whilst  some  enrich  and  some  ruin  themselves, 
banks  spring  up  and  diffuse  credit,  railroads  and  canals 
extend  themselves  over  the  country,  steamboats  are  launch- 
ed into  the  rivers,  the  lakes,  and  the  sea ;  the  career  of 
the  speculators  is  ever  enlarging,  the  field  for  railroads, 
canals,  steamers,  and  banks  goes  on  expanding.  Some 
individuals  lose,  but  the  country  is  a  gainer ;  the  country 
is  peopled,  cleared,  cultivated ;  its  resources  are  unfolded, 
its  wealth  increased.  Go  ahead ! 

If  movement  and  the  quick  succession  of  sensations 
and  ideas  constitute  life,  here  one  lives  a  hundred  fold 
more  than  elsewhere  ;  all  is  here  circulation,  motion,  and 
boiling  agitation.  Experiment  follows  experiment ;  enter- 
prise succeeds  to  enterprise.  Riches  and  poverty  follow 
on  each  other's  traces,  and  each  in  turn  occupies  the  place 
of  the  other.  Whilst  the  great  men  of  one  day  dethrone 
those  of  the  past,  they  are  already  half  overturned  them- 
selves by  those  of  the  morrow.  Fortunes  last  for  a  season  ; 
reputations,  during  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  An  irresisti- 
ble current  sweeps  away  everything,  grinds  everything  to 
powder,  and  deposits  it  again  under  new  forms.  Men 
change  their  houses,  their  climate,  their  trade,  their  condi- 


n 

310  LETTER  XXIV. 

tion,  their  party,  their  sect  ;*  the  States  change  their  laws, 
their  officers,  their  constitutions.  The  soil  itself,  or  at 
least  the  houses,  partake  in  the  universal  instability.!  The 
existence  of  social  order,  in  the  bosom  of  this  whirlpool 
seems  a  miracle,  an  inexplicable  anomaly.  One  is  tempted 
to  think,  that  such  a  society,  formed  of  heterogeneous  ele- 
ments, brought  together  by  chance,  and  following  each  its 
own  orbit  according  to  the  impulse  of  its  own  caprice  or 
interest, — one  would  think,  that  after  rising  for  one  moment 
to  the  heavens,  like  a  waterspout,  such  a  society  would 
inevitably  fall  flat  in  ruins  the  next ;  such  is  not,  however, 
its  destiny.  In  the  midst  of  this  general  change,  there  is 
one  fixed  point ;  it  is  the  domestic  fire-side,  or,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  the  conjugal  bed.  An  austere  watchman, 
sometimes  harsh  even  to  fanaticism,  wards  off  from  this 
sacred  spot  everything  that  can  disturb  its  stability ;  that 
guardian  is  the  religious  sentiment.  Whilst  that  fixed 
point  shall  continue  invariable,  whilst  that  sentinel  shall 
persist  in  his  vigilant  watch  over  it,  the  social  system  may 
make  new  somersets,  and  undergo  new  changes  without 
serious  risk  ;  it  may  be  pelted  by  the  storm,  but  while  it 

*  The  causes  of  religious  changes  are  various.  It  is  not  rare  to  see  Ameri- 
cans, on  becoming  rich,  abandon  their  former  sect  for  Episcopalianism,  for 
instance,  which  is  the  most  fashionable.  The  change,  however,  from  one 
sect  to  another  is  less  considerable  than  is  supposed  in  Catholic  countries  ; 
for  the  different  Protestant  sects  differ  less  from  each  other,  than  a  Jansenist 
from  a  Molinist,  or  a  Jesuit  from  a  Gallican.  But  we  must  except  from  this 
remark  the  Anglican  church,  which  has  a  peculiar  character,  discipline,  and 
liturgy,  and  the  two  not  very  numerous  sects  of  Unitarians,  who  deny  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  and  Universalists,  who  reject  the  doctrine  of  reprobation. 

t  The  American  houses  are  low  and  slight ;  the  walls  are  generally  only 
a  brick  and  a  half,  sometimes  only  one  in  thickness  ;  when,  therefore,  the 
course  of  the  street  is  changed,  as  is  often  the  case  in  New  York,  they  are 
set  forward  or  back  with  little  difficulty,  and  they  are  often  even  raised 
bodily.  In  the  country,  the  houses  are  mostly  of  wood,  and  are  often  trans- 
ported a  considerable  distance  on  wheels.  Between  Albany  and  Troy,  I 
was  stopped  on  the  road  by  a  house  of  more  than  forty  feet  front,  which 
was  travelling  in  this  manner. 


SPECULATIONS.  311 

is  made  fast  to  that  hold,  it  will  neither  split  nor  sink. 
It  may  even  be  divided  into  separate  and  independent 
masses,  but  it  will  still  grow  in  energy,  in  resources,  in 
extent. 

The  influence  of  the  democracy  is  so  universal  in  this 
country,  that  it  was  quite  natural  for  it  to  raise  its  head 
amidst  the  speculators.  There  have,  therefore,  been 
strikes  on  the  part  of  the  workmen,  who  wish  to  have  a 
share  in  the  profits  of  speculation,  and  who  have  demanded 
higher  wages  and  less  work.  The  former  demand  was 
just,  for  all  provisions,  all  articles  of  consumption  have 
risen  in  price.  These  coalitions  are  by  no  means  timid  in 
this  country ;  for  the  English  practice  of  haranguing  in 
public  and  getting  up  processions  prevails  here,  and  the 
working  class  here  feels  its  strength,  is  conscious  of  its 
power,  and  knows  how  to  make  use  of  it.  The  different 
traders  have  held  their  meetings  in  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  other  places,  discussed  their  affairs  publicly, 
and  set  forth  their  demands.  The  women  have  had  their 
meeting  as  well  as  the  men.  That  of  the  seamstresses  of 
Philadelphia  attracted  notice  ;  Matthew  Carey,  known  as 
a  political  writer,  presided,  assisted  by  two  clergymen. 
Among  the  demands  of  the  trades,  that  of  the  journey- 
men bakers,  who,  by  virtue  of  the  rights  of  man  and  the 
sanctity  of  the  seventh  day,  would  not  make  bread 
Sundays,  is  worthy  of  attention.  The  principal  trades 
have  decided  that  all  work  shall  be  suspended  until 
the  masters,*  if  this  name  can  be  applied  here  except  in 
derision,  have  acceded  to  their  ultimatum.  That  every 
one  may  know  this,  they  have  caused  their  resolutions  to  be 
published  in  the  newspapers,  signed  by  the  president  and 
secretaries  of  the  meeting.  These  resolutions  declare 
that  those  workmen,  who  shall  refuse  to  conform  to  their 

*  This  word  is  not  used  here  ;  that  of  employers  is  substituted  for  it. 


312  LETTER  XXIV. 

provisions,  will  have  to  abide  the  consequences  of  their 
refusal.    The  consequences  have  been,  that  those  refractory 
workmen,  who  persisted  in  their  labours,  have  been  dri- 
ven, with  stones  and  clubs,  from  their  workshops,  without 
any  interference  on  the  part  of  the  magistrates.     The  con- 
sequence is,  that  at  this  very  moment,  a  handful  of  boatmen 
on  the  Schuylkill  canal,  prevent  the  coal  boats  from  descend- 
ing to  the  sea,  lay  an  embargo  upon  them,  and  thus  inter- 
rupt one  of  the  most  lucrative  branches  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania trade,  deprive  the  mariners  and  ship-owners,  who 
transport  the  coal  to  all  parts  of  the  coast,  of  wages  and 
freights,  and  expose  the  miners  to  the  danger  of  being 
dismissed  from  the  mines.     Meanwhile  the  militia  looks 
on  ;  the  sheriff  stands  with  folded  arms.     If  this  minority 
of  the  boatmen,  for  these  acts  of  disorder  are  the  work  of 
a  small  minority,  persists  in  their  plans,  a  fight  between 
them  and  the  miners  is  to  be  apprehended.*     In  Phila- 
delphia, the  consequence  has  been,  that  the  carpenters,  in 
order  to  reduce  some  contractors  to  terms,  have  set  fire  to 
several  houses,  which  these  latter  were  building.     In  this 
case,  the  authorities  at  length  interfered,  the  mayor  issued 
a  proclamation,  reciting  that,  whereas  there  is  reason  to 
believe  these  fires  to  be  the  work  of   some  evil-minded 
persons,  he  offers   1000  dollars  reward  to  whoever  shall 
disclose  the  authors  of  the  same.     But  it  is  too  late.     The 
municipal  authorities,  for  the  purpose,  it  is  said  of  gaining 
a  few  votes  on  the  side  of  the  Opposition,  instead  of  in- 
terposing their  power  between  the  workmen  and  the  mas- 
ters, hastened,  from  the  first,  to  comply  with  all  the  de- 

*  The  citizens  of  Pottsville  have  put  an  end  to  these  outrages,  by  repair- 
ing with  a  sheriff's  mandate  to  the  spot  where  the  boatmen  were  assembled, 
and  seizing  the  ringleaders,  whom  they  conducted  to  prison.  This  courage 
of  simple  citizens,  who  in  time  of  need  convert  themselves  into  an  armed 
force,  is  one  of  the  surest  guarantees  of  American  liberty  ;  but  it  is  relaxing 
in  the  cities. 


SPECULATIONS.  313 

mauds  of  the  former  who  were  employed  on  the  munici- 
pal works. 

The  philosopher,  in  whose  eyes  the  present  is  but  a 
point,  may  find  reason  to  rejoice  in  considering  these  facts. 
Workmen  and  domestics  in  Europe  live  in  a  state  of  ab- 
solute dependence,  which  is  favourable  only  to  him  who 
commands.  Legitimists,  republicans,  the  juste-milieu,  all 
comport  themselves  toward  the  operative  whom  they  em- 
ploy, or  the  domestic  who  is  in  their  service,  as  if  he  were 
a  being  of  an  inferior  nature,  who  owes  his  master  all  his 
zeal  and  all  his  efforts,  but  who  has  no  claim  for  any  re- 
turn beyond  a  miserable  pittance  of  wages.  One  may  be 
permitted  to  wish  for  the  establishment  of  a  juster  scale  of 
rights  and  duties.  In  the  United  States,  the  absolute  prin- 
ciple of  the  popular  sovereignty  having  been  applied  to  the 
relations  of  master  and  servant,  of  employer  and  operative, 
the  manufacturer  and  the  contractor,  to  whom  the  work- 
men give  the  law,  endeavour  to  dispense  with  their  aid  as 
much  as  possible,  by  substituting  more  and  more  machin- 
ery for  human  force  ;  thus  the  most  painful  processes  in 
the  arts  become  less  burdensome  to  the  human  race.  The 
master,  whose  domestics  obey  him  when  they  please,  and 
who.  pays  dear*  for  being  badly  and  ungraciously  served, 
favours,  to  the  extent  of  his  power,  the  introduction  of  me- 
chanical contrivances  for  simplifying  work,  in  order  to 
spare  himself  the  inconveniences  of  such  a  dependence. 

It  would  be  worth  while  to  study  not  only  the  great 
manufacturing  machinery,  but  the  common  hand  tools  and 
domestic  utensils,  in  this  country.  These  utensils,  tools, 
and  machines  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  practical 
liberty  of  the  greatest  number  ;  it  is  .by  means  of  them, 


*  In  most  of  the  provinces  in  France  servants'  wages  are  from  12  to  15 
dollars  a  year;  here  they  are  from  10  to  12  dollars  a.  month,  and  one  servant 
in  France  does  the  work  of  two  in  this  country. 

40 


314  LETTER  XXIV. 

that  the  most  numerous  class  of  society  gradually  frees 
itself  from  the  yoke  which  tends  to  crush  and  abase  it. 
In  this  point  of  view,  the  present  relations  between  the 
employer  and  the  employed,  between  the  master  and  the 
servant,  in  this  country,  tend  to  hasten  the  coming  of  a 
future,  which  every  friend  of  humanity  must  hail  with  joy. 
But  if  the  philosophical  satisfaction  is  ample,  present,  phys- 
ical comfort  is  almost  absolutely  wanting.  But  whoever 
is  neither  operative  nor  domestic,  whoever,  especially,  has 
tasted  and  enjoyed  the  life  of  the  cultivated  classes  in 
Europe,  he  will  find  the  actual  practical  life  in  America, 
the  mere  bone  and  muscle,  as  it  were,  of  life,  to  consist  of 
a  series  of  jars,  disappointments,  mortifications,  I  had  almost 
said,  of  humiliations.  The  independence  of  the  operatives 
is  sometimes  the  ruin  of  the  masters  ;  the  independence 
of  servants  involves  the  dependence  of  the  women,  con- 
demns them  to  household  labours  little  consonant  with  the 
finished  education  which  many  of  them  have  received, 
and  nails  them  to  the  kitchen  and  the  nursery  from  the 
day  of  their  marriage  to  the  day  of  their  death. 

When  the  innovating  force,  acting  without  check  or 
balance,  operates  with  an  excess  of  energy,  all  classes  suf- 
fer equally  from  the  derangement.  Not  only  what  in 
Europe  are  called  the  higher  classes,  (but  which  here  must 
take  another  name,)  are  deprived  of  a  thousand  little  en- 
joyments, which  it  is  a  matter  of  convention  to  despise  in 
books  and  set  speeches,  although  every  one  sets  a  high 
value  on  them  in  practice  ;  but  the  whole  social  machine 
gets  out  of  order,  discomfort  becomes  general,  and  the  extra- 
vagant claims  of  the  lower  classes,  to  speak  as  a  European, 
recoil  violently  on  themselves.  At  this  very  moment,  for 
example,  the  Sybarites  of  Philadelphia,  whose  hearts  are  set 
upon  having  fresh  bread  on  Sunday,  are  not  the  only  per- 
sons who  suffer  or  are  threatened  with  suffering.  If  the 
exaggerated  pretensions  of  the  working  classes  are  persisted 


BEDFORD  SPRINGS.  315 

in,  they  will  lose  their  custom,  there  will  be  no  demand 
for  labour.  Speculations,  if  not  made  solid  by  labour; 
will  burst  like  soap-bubbles,  and  if  a  reaction  comes,  the 
operative,  who  is  little  used  to  economise,  will  feel  it 
more  sensibly  than  others. 


LETTER   XXV. 

BEDFORD       SPRINGS. 

BEDFORD  SPRINGS,  (PA.)  AUG.  7,  1835. 

HERE  I  am  at  Bedford,  one  of  the  American  watering- 
places  ;  it  is  hardly  three  days  since  I  arrived,  and  I  am 
already  in  haste  to  quit  it.  The  Americans,  and,  still  more 
especially,  the  American  women,  must  be  desperately  list- 
less at  home,  to  be  willing  to  exchange  its  quiet  comfort  for 
the  stupid  bustle,  and  dull  wretchedness  of  such  a  residence. 
It  would  seem  that  in  a  country  truly  democratic,  as  is  the 
case  .here  in  the  Northern  States,  nothing  like  our  water- 
ing-places can  exist ;  and  you  will  see  that  in  proportion 
as  Europe  grows  democratic,  if  such  is  its  destiny,  your 
delightful  summer  resorts  will  lose  their  charm.  Man  is 
naturally  exclusive ;  there  are  few  pleasures,  which  do 
not  cease  to  be  such,  the  moment  they  become  accessible 
to  all,  and  for  that  reason  only.  At  Saratoga  or  at  Bedford, 
the  American  soon  grows  weary,  because  he  sees  that  there 
are  twenty  thousand  heads  of  families  in  Philadelphia  and 
New  York,  who  can,  as  well  as  he,  if  the  notion  seizes 
them,  and  it  actually  does  seize  them,  have  the  satisfaction 
of  bringing  their  wives  and  daughters  to  the  same  place,  and, 
once  there,  of  gaping  on  a  chair  in  the  piazza  the  whols 


316  LKTTEIl  XXV. 

day  ;  of  going,  arms  in  hand  (I  mean  the  knife  and  fork,)  to 
secure  their  share  of  a  wretched  dinner ;  of  being  stifled  in 
the  crowd  of  the  ball-room  during  the  evening,  and  of  sleep- 
ing, if  it  is  possible,  in  the  midst  of  such  a  hubbub,  upon  a 
miserable  pallet  in  a  cell  echoing  one's  tread  from  its  floor  of 
pine  boards.  The  American  passes  through  the  magnificent 
landscapes  on  the  Hudson  without  noticing  them,  because 
he  is  one  of  six  hundred  or  a  thousand  on  board  the  steamer. 
And  to  confess  the  truth,  I  have  become  an  American  myself 
in  this  respect,  and  I  admired  the  panorama  of  West  Point 
and  the  Highlands,  only  when  I  found  myself  alone  in  my 
boat  on  the  river. 

Democracy  is  too  new  a  comer  upon  the  earth,  to  have 
been  able  as  yet  to  organise  its  pleasures  and  its  amuse- 
ments. In  Europe,  our  pleasures  are  essentially  exclu- 
sive, they  are  aristocratic  like  Europe  itself,  and  cannot, 
therefore,  be  at  the  command  and  for  the  use  of  the  mul- 
titude. In  this  matter,  then,  as  in  politics,  the  American 
democracy  has  yet  to  create  every  thing  afresh.  The 
problem  is  difficult,  but  it  is  not  insoluble,  for  it  was  once 
resolved  among  us.  The  religious  festivals  of  the  Catho- 
lic church  were  eminently  democratic  ;  all  were  called  to 
them,  all  took  part  in  them.  To  what  transports  of  joy 
did  not  all  Europe,  great  and  small,  nobles,  burgesses,  and 
serfs,  give  itself  up  in  the  time  of  the  crusades,  when  the 
victory  of  Antioch  or  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  was  cele- 
brated by  processions  and  Te  Deums  ?  Even  to  this  day, 
in  our  southern  provinces,  where  faith  is  not  yet  extinct, 
there  are  ceremonies  truly  popular  ;  such  are  the  festival  of 
Easter  with  the  representations  of  the  Passion  exhibited 
in  the  churches,  and  the  processions  with  banners  and 
crosses,  the  brotherhoods  of  penitents  with  their  quaint 
frocks  and  flowing  robes,  and  their  long  files  of  women 
and  children  ;  with  the  effigies  of  the  saints  in  full  dress, 
and  their  relics  piously  carried  about ;  and,  finally,  with 


BEDFORD  SPRINGS.  317 

the  military  and  civil  pomp,  which,  notwithstanding  the 
atheism  of  the  law,  is  mingled  with  the  show.  This  is 
the  poor  man's  spectacle,  and  one  which  leaves  on  his 
mind  better  and  more  vivid  recollections,  than  the  atro- 
cious dramas  of  the  boulevard  and  the  fire- works  of  the 
Barrier  of  the  Throne,  leave  to  the  suburban  of  Paris. 

Already  democracy,  especially  in  the  Western  States, 
is  beginning  to  .have  its  festivals,  which  thrill  its  fibres, 
and  stir  it  with  agreeable  emotions.  There  are  religious 
festivals,  the  Methodist  camp-meetings,  to  which  the  peo- 
ple press  with  eager  delight,  in  spite  of  the  philosophical 
remonstrances  of  the  more  refined  sects,  who  find  fault 
with  their  heated  zeal  and  noisy  ranting,  and  in  spite,  or 
rather  in  consequence,  of  the  convulsionary  and  hysteri- 
cal scenes  of  the  anxious  bench.  In  the  older  States  of 
the  North,  there  are  political  processions,  for  the  most  part 
mere  party  exhibitions,  but  which  are  interesting  in  this 
respect,  that  the  democracy  has  a  share  in  them  ;  for  it  is 
the  democratic  party  that  gets  up  the  most  brilliant  and 
animated.  Beside  the  camp-meetings,  the  political  pro- 
cessions are  the  only  things  in  this  country,  which  bear 
any  resemblance  to  festivals.  The  party  dinners,  with 
their  speeches  and  deluge  of  toasts,  are  frigid,  if  not  re- 
pulsive ;  and  I  have  never  seen  a  more  miserable  affair, 
than  the  dinner  given  by  the  Opposition,  that  is  to  say,  by 
the  middle  class,  at  Powelton,  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Philadelphia.  But  I  stopped  involuntarily  at  the  sight  of 
the  gigantic  hickory-poles  which  made  their  solemn  entry 
on  eight  wheels,  for  the  purpose  of  being  planted  by  the 
democracy  on  the  eve  of  the  election.  I  remember  one 
of  these  poles,  with  its  top  still  crowned  with  green 
foliage,  which  came  on  to  the  sound  of  fifes  and  drums, 
and  was  preceded  by  ranks  of  democrats,  bearing  no  other 
badge  than  a  twig  of  the  sacred  tree  in  their  hats.  It  was 
drawn  by  eight  horses,  decorated  with  ribbands  and  mot- 


318  LETTER  XXV. 

toes  ;  Astride  on  the  tree  itself,  were  a  dozen  Jackson 
men  of  the  first  water,  waving  flags  with  an  air  of  anti- 
cipated triumph,  and  shouting,  Hurrah  for  Jackson  ! 

But  this  entry  of  the  hickory  was  but  a  by-matter 
compared  with  the  procession  I  witnessed  in  New  York. 
It  was  in  the  night  after  the  closing  of  the  polls,  when 
victory  had  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  democratic  party. 
(See  Letter  XV.}.  The  procession  was  nearly  a  mile 
long  ;  the  democrats  marched  in  good  order  to  the  glare  of 
torches  ;  the  banners  were  more  numerous  than  I  had  ever 
seen  them  in  any  religious  festival ;  all  were  in  transpa- 
rency, on  account  of  the  darkness.  On  some  were  in- 
scribed the  names  of  the  democratic  societies  or  sections  ; 
Democratic  young  men  of  the  ninth  or  eleventh  ward; 
others  bore  imprecations  against  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  ;  Nick  Biddle  and  Old  Nick  here  figured  largely,  and 
formed  the  pendant  of  our  libera  nos  a  malo.  Then  came 
portraits  of  General  Jackson  afoot  and  on  horseback ; 
there  was  one  in  the  uniform  of  a  general,  and  another  in 
the  person  of  the  Tennessee  farmer,  with  the  famous 
hickory  cane  in  his  hand.  Those  of  Washington  and 
Jefferson,  surrounded  with  democratic  mottoes,  were  min- 
gled with  emblems  in  all  tastes  and  of  all  colours.  Among 
these  figured  an  eagle,  not  a  painting,  but  a  real  live  eagle, 
tied  by  the  legs,  surrounded  by  a  wreath  of  leaves,  and 
hoisted  upon  a  pole,  after  the  manner  of  the  Roman 
standards.  The  imperial  bird  was  carried  by  a  stout 
sailor,  more  pleased  than  ever  was  a  sergeant  permitted  to 
hold  one  of  the  strings  of  the  canopy,  in  a  catholic  cere- 
mony. From  further  than  the  eye  could  reach,  came 
marching  on  the  democrats.  I  was  struck  with  the  re- 
semblance of  their  air  to  the  train  that  escorts  the  viati- 
cum in  Mexico  or  Puebla.  The  American  standard- 
bearers  were  as  grave  as  the  Mexican  Indians  who  bore 
the  sacred  tapers.  The  democratic  procession,  also,  like 


BEDFORD  SPRINGS.  319 

the  Catholic  procession,  had  its  halting  places ;  it  stopped 
before  the  houses  of  the  Jackson  men  to  fill  the  air  with 
cheers,  and  halted  at  the  doors  of  the  leaders  of  the  Oppo- 
sition, to  give  three,  six,  or  nine  groans.  If  these  scenes 
were  to  find  a  painter,  they  would  be  admired  at  a  dis- 
tance, not  less  than  the  triumphs  and  sacrificial  pomps, 
which  the  ancients  have  left  us  delineated  in  marble  and 
brass  ;  for  they  are  not  mere  grotesques  after  the  manner  of 
Rembrandt,  they  belong  to  history,  they  partake  of  the 
grand  ;  they  are  the  episodes  of  a  wondrous  epic  which 
will  bequeath  a  lasting  memory  to  posterity ;  that  of  the 
coming  of  democracy. 

Yet  as  festivals  and  spectacles,  these  processions  are 
much  inferior  to  revivals,  which  take  place  in  the  camp- 
meetings.  All  festivals  and  ceremonies  in  which  woman 
does  not  take  part,  are  incomplete.  Why  is  it  that  our 
constitutional  ceremonies  are  so  entirely  devoid  of  inter- 
est ?  It  is  not  because  the  actors  are  merely  commoners, 
very  respectable  citizens  surely,  but  very  prosaic,  and  that 
the  pomp  of  costumes  and  the  fascination  of  the  arts, 
are  banished  from  them  ;  it  is  rather  because  women 
do  not  and  cannot  have  a  place  in  them.  A  wit  has 
said  that  women  are  not  poets,  but  they  are  poetry  it- 
self. 

I  remember  what  made  the  charm  and  the  attraction  of 
the  processions  in  my  provincial  city.  We  opened  our 
eyes  with  wonder  at  the  red  robe  of  the  chief  president ; 
we  gazed  with  delight  at  the  epaulets  and  gold  lace  of  the 
general,  and  more  than  one  youth  was  inspired  with  mili- 
tary ardour  at  that  show ;  we  stretched  forward  with  im- 
patience to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  episcopal  train ;  we 
threw  ourselves  on  our  knees  mechanically,  on  the  approach 
of  the  canopy  with  its  escort  of  priests,  and  the  venerable 
bishop,  crowned  with  the  mitre,  and  bearing  the  host 
in  his  hands ;  we  envied  the  glory  of  those  boys,  who 


320.  LETTER  XXV. 

had  the  privilege  of  enacting  St.  Mark  or  St.  Peter  for  the 
day ;  more  than  one  tall  stripling  was  glad  to  sink  his  fif- 
teen years,  in  which  he  prided  himself,  for  the  sake  of 
taking  the  character  of  St.  John,  clad  in  a  sheepskin  ;  but 
the  whole  multitude  held  their  breath,  when,  beneath  the 
forest  of  banners,  through  the  peaked  frocks  pf  the  peni- 
tents and  the  bayonets  of  the  garrison,  amidst  the  surplices 
and  albs  of  the  priests,  there  appeared  in  sight  one  of  those 
young  girls  in  white  robes,  who  represented  the  holy  wo- 
men and  the  Mother  of  the  seven  woes ;  or  she,  who  in 
the  person  of  St.  Veronica,  displayed  the  handkerchief, 
with  which  the  sweat  was  wiped  from  the  Saviour's  brow 
as  he  ascended  Mount  Calvary ;  or  she,  who,  loaded  with 
gold  chains,  ribands,  and  pearls,  represented  the  empress 
at  the  side  of  the  emperor  ;*  or  those  who  had  just  been 
confirmed  by  my  lord  bishop,  and  still  bore  the  traces  of 
the  emotions  excited  by  that  solemn  act.  So  it  is  because 
there  are  women  in  the  camp-meetings,  and  because  they 
take  a  not  less  active  part  in  them  than  the  most  rousing 
preachers,  and  it  is  on  this  account  only,  that  the  American 
democracy  throngs  to  these  assemblages.  The  camp- 
meetings  with  their  raving  Pythonissas  have  made  the 
fortune  of  the  Methodists,  and  attracted  to  their  church  in 
America  a  more  numerous  body  of  adherents  than  is  num- 
bered by  any  of  the  English  sects  in  Europe. 

Take  women  from  the  tournaments,  and  they  become 
nothing  more  than  a  fencing-bout ;  from  camp-meetings 
take  away  the  anxious  bench,  remove  those  women  who 
fall  into  convulsions,  shriek,  and  roll  on  the  ground,  who, 
pale,  dishevelled,  and  haggard,  cling  to  the  minister  from 
whom  they  inhale  the  holy  spirit,  or  seize  the  hardened 
sinner  at  the  door  of  the  tent,  or  in  the  passage-way,  and 


*  This  is  one  of  the  recollections  of  the  Roman  empire,  which  has  left 
deep  impressions  in  the  South  of  France. 


BEDFORD  SPRINGS.  321 

strive  to  melt  his  stony  heart ;  it  will  be  in  vain,  that  a 
majestic  forest  overshadows  the  scene,  of  a  beautiful  sum- 
mer's night,  under  a  sky  that  need  not  fear  a  comparison 
with  a  Grecian  heavens  ;  in  vain,  will  you  be  surrounded 
with  tents  and  numberless  chariots,  that  recall  to  mind  the 
long  train  of  Israel  fleeing  from  Egypt ;  in  vain  the  distant 
fires,  gleaming  amongst  the  trees,  will  reveal  the  forms  of 
the  preachers  gesticulating  above  the  crowd  ;  in  vain,  will 
the  echo  of  the  woods  fling  back  the  tones  of  their  voice  ; 
you  will  be  weary  of  the  spectacle  in  an  hour.  But  the 
camp-meetings.  asathey  are  now  conducted,  have  the  power 
of  holding  the  people  of  the  West  for  whole  weeks  ;  some 
have  lasted  a  month. 

I  allow  that  the  camp-meetings  and  political  processions 
are  as  yet  only  exceptions  in  America.  A  people  has  not 
a  complete  national  character,  until  it  has  its  peculiar  and 
appropriate  amusements,  national  festivals,  poetry.  In  this 
respect,  it  will  not  be  easy  to  create  American  nationality ; 
the  American  has  no  past  from  which  to  draw  inspiration. 
On  quitting  the  old  soil  of  Europe,  on  breaking  off  from 
England,  his  fathers  left  behind  them  the  national  chroni- 
cles, the  traditions,  the  legends,  all  that  constitutes  coun- 
try, that  country  which  is  not  carried  about  on  the  soles 
of  one's  feet.  The  American,  then,  has  become  poor  in 
ideality,  in  proportion  as  he  has  become  rich  in  material 
wealth.  But  a  democracy  always  has  some  resource,  so 
far  as  imagination  is  concerned.  I  cannot  pretend  to  de- 
cide how  the  American  democracy  will  supply  the  want  of 
a  past  and  of  old  recollections,  any  more  than  I  can  under- 
take to  pronounce,  in  what  manner  it  will  bridle  itself, 
and  curb  its  own  humours.  But  I  am  sure  that  America 
will  have  her  festivals,  her  ceremonies,  and  her  art,  as  I  am 
that  society  in  America  will  assume  a  regular  organisation  ; 
for  I  believe  in  the  future  of  American  society,  or,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  of  the  beginnings  of  society,  whose  growth 
41 


322  LETTER  XXV. 

is  visible  on  the  east  and  still  more  on  the  west  of  the  Al- 
leghanies. 

In  France  we  have  been  for  more  than  a  century  strug- 
gling against  ourselves,   in  the  attempt  to  lay  aside  our 
national  originality.     We  are  striving  to  become  reasona- 
ble according  to  what  we  imagine  to  be  the  English  pat- 
tern ;  and  after  our  example  the  Southern  Europeans  are 
endeavouring  to  torture  themselves  into  a  parliamentary 
and  calculating  demeanour.     Imagination  is  treated  as  a 
lunatic.     Noble  sentiments,  enthusiasm,  chivalric  loftiness 
of  soul,  all  that  made  the  glory  of  France,  and  gave  Spain 
half  the  world,  is  regarded  with  contempt  and  derision. 
The  public  festivals  and  popular  ceremonies  have  become 
the  laughing-stock  of  the  free  thinkers.     Love  of  the  fine 
arts  is  nothing  more  than  a  frivolous  passion.     We  make 
the  most  desperate  efforts  to  starve  the  heart  and  soul,  con- 
formably to  the  prescriptions  of  our  religious  and  political 
Sangrados.     To  strip  life  of  the  last  vestige  of  taste  and 
art,  we  have  gone  so  far  as  to  exchange  the  majestic  ele- 
gance of  the  costume,  which  we  borrowed  from  the  Span- 
iards when  they  ruled  Europe,  for  the  undress  of  the 
English,  which  may  be  described  in  one  word,  as  suited 
to  the  climate  of  Great  Britain.     This  could  be  borne,  if 
we  had  merely  flung  away  our  tournaments,  our  carousals, 
our  jubilees,   our  religious  festivals,  our  elegance  of  garb. 
But  unhappily  we  have  gone  to  the  sources  of  all  national 
and  social  poetry,  to  religion  itself,  and  tried  to  dry  them 
up.     Our  manners  and  customs  scarcely  retain  the  slightest 
tincture  of  their  boasted  grace.     Politics  is  abandoned  to 
the  dryest  matter  of  fact.     The  national  genius  would 
have  to  be  given  over  as  past  cure,  did  not  now  and  then 
some  gleams  and  outbursts  prove  that  it  is  not  dead  but 
sleeps,  and  that  the  holy  fire  is  yet  smouldering  beneath 
the  ashes. 

France,  and  the  peoples  of  Southern  Europe,  of  whom 


| 

: 


BEDFORD  SPRINGS.  323 

she  is  the  coryphaeus,  certainly  owe  much  to  the  philosophy 
of  the  18th  century;  for  that  was  our  Protest,  that  raised 
the  standard  of  liberty  amongst  us,  opened  a  career  for  the 
progress  of  mind,  and  established  individuality.  But  it 
must  be  confessed  that  it  is  inferior  to  German,  English, 
and  American  Protestantism,  because  it  is  irreligious. 
The  writings  of  the  Apostles  of  that  great  revolution  will 
survive  as  literary  monuments,  but  not  as  lessons  of  moral- 
ity ;  for  whatever  is  irreligious,  can  have  but  a  transient 
social  value.  Place  the  remains  of  Voltaire  and  Montes- 
quieu, of  Rousseau  and  Diderot,  in  the  Pantheon  ;  but  on 
their  monuments  deposit  their  works  veiled  under  a  shroud. 
Teach  the  people  to  bless  their  memory  ;  but  do  not  teach 
it  their  doctrines,  and  do  net  permit  it  to  learn  them  from 
servile  followers,  whom  those  great  writers  would  disavow, 
if  they  could  return  to  the  earth ;  for  men  like  them 
belong  to  the  present  or  a  future  age,  but  never  to  the  past. 

In  return  for  all  that  has  been  taken  from  us,  we  have 
received  the  representative  system.  This,  it  has  been  sup- 
posed, would'satisfy  all  our  wants,  would  meet  all  our  wishes 
in  moral  and  intellectual,  as  well  as  in  physical  things- 
Far  be  it  from  me  to  undervalue  the  representative  system  ! 
I  believe  in  its  permanency,  although  I  doubt  whether  we 
have  yet  discovered  the  form,  under  which  it  is  suited  to 
the  character  of  the  French  and  the  Southern  Europeans  ; 
but  whatever  may  be  its  political  value,  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  it  does  not,  that  it  never  can,  of  itself  alone,  make 
good  the  place  of  all  that  the  reformers  have  robbed  us  of. 
It  has  its  ceremonies  and  its  festivals  ;  but  these  smell  too 
much  of  the  parchment  not  to  disgust  our  senses.  It  has, 
to  a  certain  degree,  its  dogmas  and  its  mysteries,  but  it  has 
no  hold  on  the  imagination.  Art  has  no  sympathy  with 
it ;  it  has  not  the  power  to  move  the  heart ;  and  it  em- 
braces, therefore,  but  one  fourth  of  our  existence. 

I  can  conceive  how  representative  government  should 


324  LETTEllXXV. 

here  be  made  the  keystone  of  the  social  arch.  An  Amer- 
ican of  fifteen  years  of  age  is  as  reasonable  as  a  Frenchman 
of  forty.  Then  society  here  is  wholly  masculine  ; 
woman,  who  in  all  countries  has  little  of  the  spirit  of  the 
representative  system,  here  possesses  no  authority ;  there 
are  no  saloons  in  the  United  States.  But  even  here  the  sys- 
tem no  longer  exists  in  its  primitive  purity  except  on  paper. 
The  field  of  religion,  although  much  narrowed,  it  is  true, 
still  remains  open  here,  and  the  imagination  still  finds 
food,  however  meagre,  within  its  limits.  But  among  us, 
it  would  be  sheer  fanaticism  to  set  up  the  representative 
system  as  the  pivot  of  social  life.  All  of  us,  God  be 
thanked,  have  a  period  of  youth  !  Among  us,  women  have 
a  real  power,  although  not  enumerated  in  the  articles  of 
the  Charter  ;  and  our  national  character  has  many  femi- 
nine, I  will  not  say  effeminate,  features.  In  vain  would 
you  decimate  France,  and  leave  only  the  burghers  of  forty 
years,  who  have  the  senses  calmed,  the  mind  clear  of  illu- 
sions, that  is  to  say,  unpoetical  and  dry ;  you  would 
hardly  then  have  a  community  that  would  be  satisfied 
with  constitutional  emotions. 

This  is  the  cause  why  France  is  the  theatre  of  a  perpe- 
tual struggle  between  the  old  and  the  middle-aged  on  one 
side,  and  the  young,  who  find  their  bounds  too  narrow,  on 
the  other.  Youth  accuses  age  of  narrow  views,  of  timid- 
ity, of  selfishness ;  the  old  complain  of  the  greedy  ambition 
which  devours  the  young,  and  of  their  ungovernable  tur- 
bulence. That  is  the  only  good  government,  which  sat- 
isfies at  once  the  demands  for  order,  regularity,  stability 
and  physical  prosperity  on  the  part  of  those  of  riper  years, 
and  fills  the  longings  of  the  young,  and  of  that  portion  of 
society  which  always  continues  youthful,  for  lively  sensa- 
tions, brilliant  schemes,  and  lofty  aspirations.  By  the  side 
of  their  parliament,  the  English  have  their  vast  colonies, 
by  which  this  spirit  finds  vent,  over  the  remotest  seas. 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY.  325 

The  Anglo-Americans  have  the  West,  and  also,  like  Great 
Britain,  the  ocean.  This  double  invasion  of  the  East  by 
the  fathers,  and  of  the  West  by  the  emancipated  sons,  is  a 
spectacle  of  gigantic  magnitude  and  sublime  interest.  To 
suppose  that  we,  who  stand  in  need  of  some  vast  enter- 
prise, in  which  some  may  play  a  part  before  the  eyes  of 
the  world,  and  others  may  enjoy  the  spectacle  of  their 
prowess, — to  suppose  that  we  shall  be  content  to  be  forever 
imprisoned  within  our  own  territory,  with  no  other  occu- 
pation than  that  of  watching  or  turning  the  wheels  of  the 
representative  machine,  would  be  to  wish  that  a  man  of 
taste,  confined  to  this  paltry  hamlet  of  Bedford,  should 
imagine  himself  in  paradise. 


LETTER   XXVI. 

POWER      AND      LIBERTY. 

RICHMOND,  AUG.  16,  1835. 

RICHMOND  stands  in  an  admirable  situation  on  the  slope 
-of  a  hill  whose  base  is  bathed  by  the  James  River.  Its 
Capitol,  with  its  brick  columns  covered  with  plaster,  with 
its  cornice  and  architrave  of  painted  wood,  produces  an 
effect,  at  a  distance,  which  even  the  Parthenon,  in  the 
days  of  Pericles,  could  not  have  surpassed  ;  for  the  sky 
of  Virginia,  when  it  is  not  darkened  by  a  storm,  or  veiled 
with  snow,  is  as  beautiful  as  that  of  Attica.  Richmond 
has  its  port  nearer  than  the  Piraeus  was  to  Athens,  while, 
at  the  same  time  it  stands  upon  the  falls  of  James  River. 
Richmond  enchanted  me  from  the  first  by  its  charming 


326  LETTER  XXVI. 

situation  and  the  cordiality  of  its  inhabitants  ;  and  it  pleases 
me  by  its  ambition,  for  it  aspires  to  be  a  metropolis,  and 
it  is  making  the  due  preparations  to  assume  that  character 
by  the  great  works  which  it  is  executing  or  aiding  to 
execute,  canals,  railroads,  water-works,  huge  mills,  work- 
shops, for  which  the  fall  in  the  river  affords  an  almost  un- 
limited motive  power.  Here  I  also  found  some  country- 
men, whose  love  for  their  country  had  not  been  chilled  by 
fifty  years  of  absence  and  eighty  years  of  age,  and  who 
have  preserved,  amidst  the  simplicity  of  American  man- 
ners, that  fine  flower  of  courtesy,  of  which  the  germ  is 
daily  disappearing  amongst  us.  I  went  yesterday,  for  the 
second  time,  to  visit  the  cannon  and  mortars,  given  to 
America  during  her  struggle  for  independence,  by  Louis 
XVI.  In  the  Capitol,  by  the  side  of  the  statue  of  Wash- 
ington, I  found  the  bust  of  Lafayette.  I  heard  the  names 
of  Rochambeau  and  d'Estaing  pronounced,  as  if  they  were 
old  friends  who  had  left  but  yesterday.  I  seem  to  myself, 
at  times  to  have  been  miraculously  transported,  not  into 
France,  but  on  the  frontiers. 

My  admiration  of  Richmond  is  not,  however,  blind  ; 
the  founders  of  the  new  city  have  plotted  out  streets  one 
hundred  feet  wide,  like  the  highways  in  the  style  of  Louis 
XIV. ;  but  in  our  great  roads,  between  the  quagmires  on 
the  right  and  left,  there  is  at  least  a  strip  of  passable  pave- 
ment or  roadway.  The  streets  of  new  Richmond  have 
neither  pavement  nor  light.  In  the  rainy  season,  they  are 
dangerous  bogs,  in  which,  I  am  told,  that  several  cows, 
who  are  here  allowed  by  the  municipal  authorities  to  go 
at  large,  have  met  with  the  fate  of  the  master  of  Ravens- 
worth  in  the  Kelpie.  Richmond  has,  also,  something  of 
the  aspect  of  Washington  ;  with  the  exception  of  the  busi- 
ness part  of  the  town,  it  is  neither  city  nor  country ;  the 
houses  are  scattered  about  on  an  imaginary  plan,  and  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  find  any  lines  to  guide  you,  or  to  re- 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY.  327 

cognise  the  street  K,  F,  or  D,  to  which  you  are  referred  ; 
for  the  alphabet  has  furnished  the  names  here,  as  the 
arithmetic  has  done  at  Washington.  The  plot  of  Rich- 
mond has.  however,  this  advantage  over  that  of  Washing- 
ton, that  it  is  on  a  smaller  scale  and  will  be  more  speedily 
filled  up  ;  whilst  Washington  with  its  arrangements  for  a 
million  inhabitants,  will  not,  perhaps,  have  fifty  thousand, 
twenty  years  hence. 

There  is  something  in  Richmond  which  offends  me 
more  than  its  bottomless  mudholes,  and  shocks  me  more 
than  the  rudeness  of  the  western  Virginians,*  whom  I  met 
here  during  the  session  of  the  legislature  ;  it  is  slavery. 
Half  of  the  population  is  black  or  mulatto  ;  physically, 
the  negroes  are  well  used  in  Virginia,  partly  from  motives 
of  humanity,  and  partly,  because  they  are  so  much  live 
stock  raised  for  exportation  to  Louisiana;  morally,  they 
are  treated  as  if  they  did  not  belong  to  the  human  race. 
Free  or  slave,  the  black  is  here  denied  all  that  can  give 
him  the  dignity  of  man.  The  law  forbids  the  instruction 
of  the  slave  or  the  free  man  of  colour  in  the  simplest  ru- 
diments of  learning,  under  the  severest  penalties  ;  the 
slave  has  no  family  ;  he  has  no  civil  rights  ;  he  holds  no 

*  When  the  assembly  is  in  session,  Richmond  is  full  of  country  gentle- 
men from  Western  Virginia,  real  giants,  taller,  stouter,  and  broader  than  the 
giants  who  are  exhibited  among  us  for  money.  When  I  found  myself  sur- 
rounded by  these  men,  with  their  loud  voices  and  Herculean  frame,  I  expe- 
rienced the  same  feeling  with  the  companions  of  Magellan,  when  they 
found  themselves  alone  amidst  a  crowd  of  Patagonians.  These  good  peo- 
ple, to  testify  their  good  will,  lavish  upon  you  the  same  weighty  caresses,  as 
those  which  the  Spaniards  at  first  took  for  blows,  and  when  you  feel  their 
heavy  hands  fall  like  a  sledge  upon  your  European  shoulders,  nothing  less 
than  the  frank  smile  that  lights  up  their  broad  faces,  would  convince  you  of 
their  friendly  disposition.  The  first  time  I  was  in  Richmond,  I  occupied  the 
chamber,  that  had  just  been  left  by  one  of  these  gentlemen ;  wishing  to 
consult  some  of  the  papers  of  the  session,  I  sought  in  vain  for  any  thing  like 
his  library.  His  whole  parliamentary  outfit  consisted  of  a  mass  of  empty 
bottles,  a  barrel  of  biscuit,  a  case  of  liquors,  and  the  fragments  of  a  huge 
cheese. 


328  LETTER  XXVI. 

property.  The  white  man  knows  that  the  slave  has 
opened  his  ear  to  the  word  which  every  thing  here  pro- 
claims aloud,  liberty  ;  he  knows  that  in  secret  the  negro 
broods  over  hopes  and  schemes  of  vengeance,  and  that  the 
exploits  and  martyrdom  of  Gabriel,  the  leader  of  an  old 
conspiracy,  and  of  Turner,  the  hero  of  a  more  recent  in- 
surrection, are  still  related  in  the  negro  cabins.*  The 
precautionary  measures  which  this  knowledge  has  induced 
the  whites  to  adopt,  are  such  as  freeze  the  heart  of  a  stran- 
ger with  horror. 

1  Richmond  is  noted  for  its  tobacco  and  flour  market. 
The  Richmond  flour  is  prized  at  Rio  Janeiro  as  much  as 
at  New  York,  at  Lima  as  well  as  at  Havana.     The  largest 
flour-mill  in  the  world  is  at  Richmond,  running  twenty 
pair  of  stones,  containing  a  great  variety  of  accessory  ma- 
chinery, and  capable   of   manufacturing    600   barrels  of 
flour  a  day.     The  reputation  of  the  Richmond  flour  in 
foreign  markets,  like  that  of  the  American  flour  in  general, 
depends  upon  a  system  of  inspection  peculiar  to  the  coun- 
try, which  contravenes,   indeed,    the   theory  of  absolute 
commercial  freedom,  but  is  essential  to  the  prosperity  of 
American  commerce,  and  has  never,  that  I  have  heard  of, 
been  a  subject  of  complaint.     The  flour  is  inspected  pre- 
vious to  its  being  exported.     The  weight  of  each  barrel 
and  the  quality  of  of  the  flour  are  ascertained  by  the  in- 
spector, and  branded  on  the  barrel-head.     The  superior 
qualities  only  can  be  exported ;  the  inspection  is  real  and 
thorough,  and  is  performed  at  the  expense  of  the  holder. 
The  Havana,  Brasilian,  or  Peruvian  merchant  is  thus  per- 
fectly sure  of  the  quality  of  the  merchandise  he  buys ; 
both  the  buyer  and  the  seller  find  their  advantage  in  it. 

*  A  gang  of  negroes  rose  against  their  masters  in  Southampton  in  1831, 
and  murdered  several  white  families,  without  distinction  of  age  or  sex,  and 
the  alarm  became  general  through  the  country.  The  murderers  were  soon 
captured  and  executed. 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY.  329 

Commerce  can  no  more  dispense  with  confidence  in  the 
market  than  with  credit  in  the  counting-house. 

Tobacco  is  subjected  to  the  same  system  of  inspection, 
and  in  general,  all  the  coast  States,  all  those  from  which 
produce  is  exported  to  foreign  parts,  have  established  this 
system,  and  applied  it  to  almost  all  articles  in  which  frauds 
can  be  committed.  Thus  in  New  York  wheat-flour  and 
Indian  corn-meal,  beef,  pork,  salt  fish,  potash,  whale  oil, 
lumber,  staves,  flax-seed,  leather,  tobacco,  hops,  spirits, 
are  all  inspected.  In  regard  to  flour,  the  law  is  more 
rigourous  than  in  respect  to  other  articles.  The  inspector 
brands  with  the  word  light  those  barrels  which  are  not  of 
the  legal  weight,  and  the  exportation  of  which  is  also 
prohibited,  and  with  the  word  bad  those  which  are  of  poor 
quality.  As  for  Indian  corn,  it  is  required  that  the  grain 
shall  have  been  kiln-dried  before  grinding.  Flour  from 
other  States  cannot  be  sold  in  the  city  of  New  York,  even 
for  local  consumption,  unless  it  has  been  inspected  the 
same  as  if  for  exportation.  Every  inspector  has  the  right 
to  search  vessels  in  which  he  suspects  that  there  is  flour 
that  has  not  been  inspected,  and  to  seize  what  has  been  so 
shipped,  or  what  it  has  been  attempted  to  ship.  There  are  be- 
side various  other  provisions  and  penalties  to  prevent  fraud. 

If  the  necessity  of  these  inspections  were  not  sufficiently 
proved  by  their  good  effects  and  by  long  experience,  it 
would  be  by  the  abuses  that  prevail  in  those  articles  of 
commerce  which  are  not  subjected  to  the  system.  Com- 
plaints have  already  been  made  in  Liverpool,  that  bales  of 
cotton  are  often  made  up  of  an  inferior  article  concealed 
beneath  an  outer  layer  of  good  quality.  From  a  report 
addressed  to  the  Chamber  of  American  Commerce  in  this 
metropolis  of  the  cotton  trade,  by  the  principal  cotton-bro- 
kers, it  appears  that  this  has  not  been  confined  to  two  or 
three  bales,  amidst  large  quantities,  but  that  whole  lots  of 
one  or  two  hundred  bales  have  been  found  thus  deficient. 
42 


330  LETTER  XXVI. 

What !  it  will  be  said,  is  there  not,  then,  freedom  of 
commerce  in  this  classic  land  of  liberty  ?  No  !  the  foreign 
commerce  is  not  free  in  the  United  States,  because  the 
American  people  is  not  willing  to  expose  the  industry  and 
commerce  of  a  whole  country  to  be  ruined  by  the  first 
rogue  that  comes  along.  The  people  of  this  country  is 
eminently  a  working  people  ;  every  one  is  at  liberty  to 
work,  to  choose  his  profession,  and  to  change  it  twenty 
times ;  every  one  has  the  right  to  go  and  come  on  his 
business,  at  pleasure,  and  to  transport  his  person  and  his 
industry  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference,  and  from 
the  circumference  to  the  centre.  If  the  country  does  not 
enjoy  the  political  advantages  of  administrative  unity, 
neither  is  it  hampered  in  the  most  petty  details  of  industry 
by  excessive  centralisation.  No  man  is  obliged  to  go  six 
hundred  miles  to  solicit  the  license  and  personal  signature 
of  a  minister,  overloaded  with  business,  and  harassed  by 
parliamentary  solicitudes.  But  American  liberty  is  not  a 
mystical,  undefined  liberty  ;  it  is  a  practical  liberty,  in 
harmony  with  the  peculiar  genius  of  the  people  and  its 
peculiar  destiny  ;  it  is  a  liberty  of  action  and  motion,  of 
which  the  American  avails  himself  to  spread  himself  over 
the  vast  territory  that  Providence  has  given  him,  and  to 
subdue  it  to  his  uses.  The  liberty  of  locomotion  is  almost 
absolute  with  the  exception  of  some  restraints  imposed 
by  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  The  liberty,  or  rather 
independence,  in  matters  of  industry  is  also  ample  ;  but  if 
it  is  abused  by  some  individuals,  the  general  tendency  is  to 
restrain  them  by  law  or  by  dictatorial  measures,  or  by  the 
influence  of  public  opinion,  sometimes  expressed  in  the 
shape  of  mobs. 

The  restraints  on  internal  trade  are  few ;  there  are, 
however,  some  restrictions  upon  hawkers  and  pedlers  who 
impose  on  the  credulity  of  the  country  people.  If  no 
effective  bankrupt-law  has  yet  been  enacted,  severe  penal- 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY.  331 

ties  are  provided  against  false  pretences.  If  stock-jobbing 
has  not  been  prohibited,  it  is  not  from  want  of  will  on  the 
part  of  the  legislators,  for  they  are  fully  alive  to  the  evils 
of  unproductive  speculation,  which  diverts  from  industry 
the  needful  capital  ;  but  because  they  do  not  see  how  it.  is 
to  be  effectually  prevented.  Besides,  it  is  not  easy  to  com- 
mit frauds  in  the  United  States,  in  the  home  trade  ;  for 
here  every  body  knows  every  body  else,  and  every  one  is 
on  the  watch  against  others ;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to 
ascend  to  the  sources  of  a  fraud.  In  respect  to  articles 
designed  for  the  foreign  trade,  detection  is  not  so  easy. 
There  is  also  here  a  sort  of  patriotism,  which  is  by 
no  means  at  war  with  the  real  interests  of  the  parties, 
and  which  operates  with  the  fear  of  public  opinion,  in 
keeping  up  a  certain  degree  of  honesty  in  domestic 
transactions,  and  a  tone  of  morality,  which,  if  not  wholly 
above  reproach,  is  certainly  far  superior  to  what  prevails 
amongst  us  ;  whilst,  to  many  persons,  all  is  fair  in  dealings 
with  foreigners,  whom  they  look  upon  as  a  kind  of  barba- 
rians. 

Previous  to  1789,  we  had  numerous  restrictions  not  only 
on  foreign  commerce,  but  on  domestic  industry,  in  France. 
These  were  all  blown  away  by  the  Revolution  ;  and  cer- 
tainly the  destruction  of  most  of  them,  which  had  be- 
come antiquated  and  inapplicable  to  the  existing  state  of 
things,  was  a  great  gain  ;  but  we  have  run  into  the  con- 
trary extreme,  and  abolished  not  only  the  burdensome 
restraints,  but  the  most  salutary  checks,  and  among  them 
the  inspection  of  exported  articles.  Yet  on  the  whole  we 
have  gained  in  respect  to  domestic  industry,  by  sweeping 
away  those  often  cumbersome  regulations ;  but  in  regard 
to  our  foreign  trade,  the  evil  has  certainly  overborne  the 
good,  as  the  decline  of  our  maritime  commerce  fully  proves. 

On  the  peace  of  1814,  when  the  sea  was  again  opened 
to  our  vessels,  our  foreign  commerce  fell  into  the  hands  of 


332  LETTER  XXVI. 

petty  traffickers,  whose  cupidity  exhausted  the  vocabulary 
of  fraud.  During  the  first  years  after  the  Restoration,  the 
French  name  became  discredited  in  all  the  markets  of  the 
Old  and  the  New  World.  The  Levant  trade,  of  which  we 
had  the  monopoly,  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  English 
and  Austrians.  The  stuffs,  with  which  we  formerly  sup- 
plied the  East,  being  no  longer  subject  to  inspection  on  ex- 
portation, fell  short  in  measure  and  were  inferior  in  quality. 
Formerly  packages  of  our  goods  changed  hands  without 
distrust  and  without  search ;  but  it  became  necessary  to 
submit  them  to  a  rigourous  examination,  for  their  contents 
often  turned  out  to  be  quite  different  from  the  invoice. 
South  America  was  the  great  theatre  of  these  frauds  ; 
water  was  actually  sold  for  Burgundy,  rolls  of  wood  for 
rolls  of  ribands.  The  Bordelese,  who,  not  without  reason, 
charge  the  prohibitive  system  with  the  decline  of  their 
prosperity,  cannot  be  blind  to  the  fact,  that  their  own 
unscrupulous  rapacity  contributed  pretty  largely  to  this 
result. 

As  customers  could  no  longer  be  found  to  deal  with  us, 
these  frauds  have  necessarily  been  checked.  Our  foreign 
trade  has  gradually  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  few  great 
houses,  and  this  concentration,  which  has  powerfully  con- 
tributed to  the  prevalence  of  honorable  dealings  in  English 
commerce,  has  done  something  towards  reviving  ours. 
The  small  dealers  have  been  driven  out  of  the  field  ;  and 
it  is  to  this  cause  that  we  have  to  attribute  the  good  condi- 
tion of  our  trade  with  the  United  States.  But  let  us  not 
deceive  ourselves ;  some  sleights  of  hand  are  still  played 
off ;  Bordeaux  is  not  yet  wholly  purged  of  the  infection  ; 
French  commerce  abroad  is  yet  cankered  by  foul  sores.  It 
must  be  confessed,  that,  if  our  public  policy  has  been  mark- 
ed by  a  good  faith  and  a  spirit  of  disinterestedness,  that 
give  us  a  right  to  denounce  the  Punic  faith  of  perfidious 
Albion,  the  English  race  can  proudly  oppose  the  bold  and 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY. 

honourable  spirit  of  its  commercial  dealings  to  the  pusil- 
lanimity and  unworthy  shifts  of  our  own.  Let  us  con- 
fess our  shame,  and  submit  to  the  necessary  diet  for  the 
cure  of  so  loathsome  a  leprosy. 

The  United  States  constitute  a  society  which  moves 
under  the  impulse  and  by  the  guidance  of  instinct,  rather 
than  according  to  any  premeditated  plan  ;  it  does  not 
know  itself.  It  rejects  the  tyranny  of  a  past,  which  is 
exclusively  military  in  its  character,  and  yet  it  is  deeply 
imbued  with  the  sentiment  of  order.  It  has  been  nurtured 
in  the  hatred  of  the  old  political  systems  of  Europe  ;  but  a 
feeling  of  the  necessity  of  self-restraint  runs  through  its 
veins.  It  is  divided  between  its  instinctive  perceptions  of 
the  future  and  its  aversion  to  the  past ;  between  its  thirst 
after  freedom,  and  its  hunger  for  social  order  ;  between  its 
religious  veneration  of  experience,  and  its  horror  of  the 
violence  of  past  ages.  Hence  the  apparent  contradictions 
which  appear  in  its  tastes  and  its  tendencies ;  but  the  con- 
fusion is  only  apparent. 

In  each  State  there  are  two  authorities,  distinct  in  their 
composition  and  their  attributes.  The  one  corresponds  to 
the  government  in  the  European  social  system,  to  the  old 
Caesar.  At  its  head  is  a  magistrate  who  bears  the  old 
name  of  Governor,*  with  the  pompous  title  of  commander- 

*  The  respect  of  the  Americans  for  old  names  and  titles  is  shown  in  their 
retaining  most  of  those  that  were  in  use  under  the  English  rule.  Thus  the 
States  are  divided  into  counties,  and  there  are  in^everal  towns,  for  instance, 
in  Charleston,  a  King's  Street  and  a  Queen's  Street.  In  Virginia,  there  are 
Prince  Edward's,  Prince  George's,  King's  and  Queen's,  King  George's  and 
King  William's  Counties.  Georgia  retained  its  name,  even  when  at  war 
with  the  monarch  in  honour  of  whom  it  bore  it.  I  was  very  much  surprised 
to  hear  a  court  of  justice  in  Pennsylvania  opened  with  the  old  French  word 
oyez!  oyez !  oyez!  repeated  by  the  crier,  without  his  understanding  the 
meaning.  The  English  received  it  from  the  Normans,  and  the  Americans 
have  retained  it,  because  they  received  it  from  their  fathers.  In  France  we 
not  only  changed  the  name  of  Choisy-le-Roi  into  Choisy-le-Peuple,  but  we 
even  suppressed  the  prefix  of  Saint,  in  the  names  of  the  Streets. 


334  LETTER  XXVI. 

in-chief  of  the  sea  and  land  forces.  This  authority  is  re- 
duced to  a  shadow.  In  the  new  States  of  the  West, 
which  have  come  into  the  world  since  the  establishment 
of  Independence,  its  attributes  have  been  gradually  sup- 
pressed, or  rather  the  citizens  have  reserved  the  exercise  of 
them  to  themselves.  Thus  the  people  itself  appoint  most 
of  the  public  officers.  The  management  of  funds  is  rarely 
confided  to  the  Governor,  but  is  generally  entrusted  to  a 
special  board  of  Commissioners.  The  Governor  has  not  the 
control  of  the  forces  of  the  State  ;  strictly  speaking,  indeed, 
there  are  none  ;  but  in  case  of  necessity,  the  Sheriff  has 
the  right  to  summon  the  posse  comitatus,  and  to  oblige  all 
bystanders,  armed  or  not,  to  render  him  assistance,  and  to 
act  as  police  officers.  There  is  no  regular  police,  there 
are  no  passports  ;  but  nobody  can  stop  at  an  inn  without 
entering  his  name  and  residence  on  the  register.  This 
register  is  open  to  the  examination  of  all  in  the  bar-room, 
which  is  a  necessary  appendage  of  every  public  place,  and 
there  it  remains  at  all  times  to  be  turned  over  by  all.  The 
bar-keeper  fills,  in  fact,  the  post  of  commissioner  of  police, 
and  the  crowd  that  assembles  in  the  bar-room  to  read  the 
newspapers,  smoke,  drink  whiskey,  and  talk  politics,  that 
is  to  say  all  travellers,  would,  in  case  of  necessity,  be  ready 
to  act  the  part  of  constables.  This  is  real  self-govern- 
ment ;  these  are  the  obligations  and  responsibilities,  that 
every  citizen  takes  upon  himself  when  he  disarms  au- 
thority. The  power  of  the  Governor,  who  was  formerly 
the  representative  of  fpyalty,  the  brilliant  reflexion  of  the 
omnipotence  of  the  proud  monarchs  of  Europe,  is  crumbled 
to  dust.  Even  the  exterior  of  power  has  not  been  kept 
up  ;  he  has  no  guards,  no  palace,  no  money.  The  Gov- 
ernors of  Indiana  and  Illinois  have  a  salary  of  1000  dollars 
a  year,  without  a  house  or  any  accessories.  There  is  not 
a  trader  in  Cincinnati,  who  does  not  pay  his  head-clerk 
better  ;  the  clerks  at  Washington  have  700  dollars  a  year. 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY.  335 

This  fall  of  power  is  to  be  explained  by  other  consid- 
erations than  those  drawn  from  the  principle  of  self-gov- 
ernment. The  ancient  power  was  Caesar,  was  military 
in  its  character.  American  society  has  denied  Caesar. 
In  Europe,  it  has  been  necessary  that  Caesar  should 
be  strong  for  the  security  of  national  independence ;  for 
in  Europe  we  are  always  on  the  eve  of  war.  The  United 
States,  on  the  contrary,  are  organised  on  the  principle, 
that  war  between  the  States  is  an  impossibility,  and  that 
a  foreign  war  is  scarcely  probable.  The  Americans,  there- 
fore, can  dispense  with  Caesar,  but  we  are  obliged  to  cleave 
to  him.  Yet  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  they  can  and 
will  long  dispense  with  authority,  or  that  they  are  even  now 
free  from  its  control.  There  is,  in  America,  religious 
authority,  which  never  closes  its  eyes  ;  there  is  the  author- 
ity of  opinion,  which  is  severe  to  rigour ;  there  is  the 
authority  of  the  legislatures,  which  sometimes  savours  of 
the  omnipotence  of  parliament ;  there  is  the  dictatorial 
authority  of  mobs. 

Still  more  ;  by  the  side  of  the  power  of  Caesar,  in  politi- 
cal affairs,  another  regular  authority  is  beginning  to  show 
itself,  which  embraces  within  its  domain  the  modern  in- 
stitutions and  new  establishments  of  public  utility,  such 
as  the  public  routes,  banks,  and  elementary  schools,  that, 
in  the  United  States,  have  acquired  an  unparallelled  magni- 
tude. Thus  there  are  Canal  Commissioners,  Bank  Com- 
missioners, School  Commissioners.  Their  power  is  great 
and  real.  The  Canal  Commissioners  establish  adminis- 
trative regulations,  which  they  change  at  will,  without 
previous  notice.  They  fix  and  change  the  rate  of  tolls  ; 
they  are  surrounded  by  a  large  body  of  agents,  entirely 
dependent  upon  them  and  removeable  at  pleasure ;  they 
are  charged  with  the  management  of  large  sums  of 
money ;  the  sums  that  passed  through  the  hands  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Commissioners  amounted  to  nearly 


336  LETTER  XXVI. 

23,000,000  dollars.  They  are  certainly  subjected  to  a 
less  minute  and  rigourous  control,  than  is  extended  to  the 
most  trifling  affairs  of  our  Board  of  Public  Works  or  our 
Engineer  Department.  If  they  had  had  our  financial 
regulations,  our  system  of  responsibility,  our  court  of 
accounts,  they  would,  certainly,  have  spent  ten  years  more 
in  executing  the  works  entrusted  to  them,  and  they  would 
have  executed  them  no  better  and  no  cheaper.  The  Bank 
Commissioners  in  the  State  of  New  York,  by  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Safety  Fund  Act,  are  clothed,  by  right,  if  not 
in  fact,  with  a  sort  of  dictatorship  ;  they  have,  in  certain 
cases,  power  of  life  and  death  over  the  banks. 

It  is  in  the  new  States,  especially,  that  one  should  see 
the  Commissioners  exercise  their  powers.  Last  summer 
the  Ohio  Canal  Commissioners,  perceiving  or  thinking  that 
they  perceived,  a  conspiracy  among  the  persons  engaged 
in  the  transportation  of  goods  on  the  New  York  canals  to 
raise  the  rates  of  freight,  immediately  adopted  a  resolution 
to  this  effect ;  whereas  certain  persons  have  shown  a  dis- 
position to  make  exorbitant  charges,  the  rates  of  toll  on 
all  articles  that  may  have  paid  on  the  New  York  canal, 
above  a  certain  rate  of  freight,  shall  be  double.  This 
was  establishing  a  maximum,  not  only  on  their  own  ter- 
ritory, but  on  that  of  a  neighbouring  State.  A  director- 
general  of  our  public  routes,  who  should  take  such  a  liberty, 
would  be  forthwith  denounced  as  violating  the  principles 
of  commercial  freedom.  In  the  United  States,  every 
body  agrees  that  the  Ohio  Commissioners  were  right ;  that 
the  profits  of  the  transportation  companies  would  be  some- 
what less,  but  the  public  would  be  the  gainer,  and  the 
former  accordingly  submitted. 

In  the  United  States,  then,  the  general  weal  is  the 
supreme  law  ;  and  it  immediately  raises  its  head  and  vin- 
dicates its  rights,  when  it  feels  the  encroachments  of  pri- 
vate interest.  The  system  of  government  in  this  country 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY.  337 

is,  therefore,  not  so  much  a  system  of  absolute  liberty  and 
free  will,  as  a  system  of  equality,  or  rather  it  takes  the 
character  of  a  strong  rule  by  the  majority.  In  looking  at 
some  of  the  provisions  in  the  charters  of  incorporated 
companies,  one  is  tempted  to  ask  how  associations  could 
be  formed  on  such  conditions,  and  how  they  have  been 
able  to  procure  capital.  In  Massachusetts,  the  share-holders 
are  individually  responsible  for  the  debts  of  the  com- 
pany. In  Pennsylvania,  it  is  expressly  provided,  that,  if 
at  any  time  the  privileges  granted  to  the  corporation  shall 
prove  to  be  contrary  to  the  public  good,  the  legislature 
may  revoke  them.  This  is  the  germ  of  despotism ;  but 
in  the  United  States,  Caesar  is  disarmed ;  the  old  feudal 
line  has  neither  fangs  nor  claws.  Industry  is  prompt  to 
take  alarm  at  the  exercise  of  despotism  by  Cassar ;  but  it 
is  only  in  extreme  cases,  that  it  will  feel  any  distrust  of  a 
society  which  lives  and  flourishes  by  labour,  and  all. whose 
ends  and  aims,  public  and  private,  are  self-aggrandisement 
by  means  of  productive  labour. 

To  understand  fully  the  meaning  of  the  word  liberty, 
as  it  is  used  in  this  country,  it  is  necessary  to  go  to  the 
sources  of  the  American  population  ;  that  is  to  say,  to  the 
origin- of  the  distinction  between  the  Yankee  and  the  Vir- 
ginian race.  They  have  arrived  at  their  notions  of  liberty 
by  different  avenues,  the  one  by  the  gate  of  religion,  and 
the  other  by  that  of  politics,  and  have,  therefore,  under- 
stood it  very  differently. 

When  the  Yankee  came  to  settle  himself  in  the  New 
World,  it  was  not  for  the  purpose  of  founding  an  empire, 
but  to  establish  a  church.  He  fled  from  a  land,  which 
had  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  the  papal  Babylon,  only  to  fall 
under  that  of  the  Babylon  of  episcopacy.  He  left  behind 
him  Satan,  his  pomp,  and  his  works ;  he  shook  from  the 
soles  of  his  feet  the  dust  of  the  inhospitable  land  of  the 
Stuarts  and  the  Anglican  bishops  ;  he  sought  a  refuge 
43 


338  LETTER  XXVI. 

in  which  he  might  practise  his  own  mode  of  worship  and 
obey  what  he  believed  to  be  the  law  of  God.  The  Pil- 
grims, landed  on  Plymouth  rock,  established  a  liberty 
according  to  their  own  notion  ;  it  was  a  liberty  for 
their  own  use  exclusively,  within  whose  embrace  they  felt 
perfectly  at  ease  themselves,  without  caring  if  others  were 
stifled  by  it.  It  might  have  been  expected,  that,  pro- 
scribed themselves,  they  would  at  least  have  admitted 
religious  toleration ;  but  they  did  not  grant  it  the  narrowest 
corner,  and  even  now  it  is  far  from  having  elbow  room 
among  them.  Originally,  the  right  of  citizenship  was 
extended  only  to  Puritans  like  themselves;  the  state  and 
the  church  were  confounded  ;  it  was  not  until  1832  that 
they  were  definitely  and  completely  separated  in  Massa- 
chusetts. The  Jew  and  the  Quaker  were  forbidden  to 
touch  the  soil  under  the  severest  penalties,  and  in  case  of 
return,  under  pain  of  death.  At  present,  if  the  law  tole- 
rates the  Roman  Catholic,  public  opinion  does  not,  as  the 
burning  of  the  Ursuline  convent  in  1834,  and  the  scanda- 
lous scenes  exhibited  at  the  trials  of  the  incendiaries,  testify. 
Still  less  mercy  is  shown  to  unbelief ;  witness  the  trial  of 
Abner  Kneeland  for  blasphemy,  on  account  of  his  panthe- 
istic writings.* 

The  Yankee  type  exhibits  little  variety  ;  all  Yankees 
seem  to  be  cast  in  the  same  mould  ;  it  was,  therefore,  very 
easy  for  them  to  organise  a  system  of  liberty  for  them- 
selves, that  is,  to  construct  a  frame,  within  which  they 
should  have  the  necessary  freedom  of  motion.  On  their 
arrival  they  accordingly  formed  the  plan  of  one,  riot  merely 
tracing  its  general  outlines  and  form,  but  dividing  it  into 
numerous  compartments  controlling  all  the  details  of  life, 

*  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  author  has  here  fallen  into  a  gross 
error.  Even  in  the  affair  of  the  convent  at  Charlestown,  it  was  the  supposed 
abuse  of  a  particular  institution,  not  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  itself,  that 
kindled  the  flame. — TRANSL. 


POWER  AND  LIBERTY.  339 

with  as  much  minuteness  as  the  Mosaic  law  did  that  of  the 
Hebrews.  Thus  organised,  it  became  impossible  for  any 
man  not  cut  to  the  same  pattern,  to  establish  himself 
among  them.  Although  most  of  those  laws  which  thus 
reduced  life  to  rules,*  have  been  abrogated,  especially  since 
the  Revolution,  still  their  spirit  survives.  The  habits 
which  gave  them  birth,  and  to  which,  by  a  natural  reac- 
tion, they  gave  strength,  still  exist,  and  to  this  day  it  is 
observable,  that  no  foreigner  settles  in  New  England. 

As  for  us,  who  resemble  each  other  in  nothing,  except  in 
diifering  from  every  body  else,  for  us,  to  whom  variety  is  as 
necessary  as  the  air,  to  whom  a  life  of  rules  would  be  a  sub- 
ject of  horrour,the  Yankee  system  would  be  torture.  Their 
liberty  is  not  the  liberty  to  outrage  all  that  is  sacred  on  earth, 
to  set  religion  at  defiance,  to  laugh  morals  to  scorn,  to 
undermine  the  foundations  of  social  order,  to  mock  at  all 

*  I  doubt  if  the  power  of  the  community  over  the  individual  has  been 
pushed  to  such  an  extent  anywhere  else  as  in  New  England  ;  in  Connecti- 
cut there  were  laws  forbidding  a  person  to  continue  tippling  more  than  half 
an  hour  at  a  tavern,  or  to  drink  more  than  half  a  pint  of  wine,  and  it  was 
ordered  that  taverns  and  victualling-houses  should  be  closed  at  half  past  nine 
o'clock.  'No  young  man  not  married  could  keep  house  without  the  consent 
of  the  town  ;  and  no  housekeeper  could  receive  a  young  man  to  sojourn  in 
his  family  without  the  same  permission.  Laws  were  made  against  swearing, 
lying,  uttering  false  news  or  reports,  or  using  tobacco  without  a  certificate 
from  a  physician  that  it  was  necessary  to  health.  Other  regulations  prohib- 
ited smoking  in  public  places,  and  this  very  year  the  city  government  of 
Boston  has  forbidden  smoking  in  the  Mall,  which,  however,  I  do  not  con- 
sider a  measure  of  excessive  rigour.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  laws  of 
the  New  England  colonies  were  extretnely  severe  in  religious  matters ; 
every  individual  was  required  to  join  some  Congregational  society,  and  no 
one  was  eligible  to  any  public  trust,  unless  he  had  so  done.  Dissenters  were 
taxed  for  the  support  of  the  established  church.  Jews  and  Quakers  were 
banished,  and  forbidden  to  return  under  pain  of  death.  The  Blue  Laws  of 
Connecticut  contained  some  curious  provisions  in  respect  to  marriage,  and 
at  Taunton,  in  Massachusetts,  in  1836,  two  justices  forbade  the  bans  of  ma- 
trimony, on  the  ground  that  the  parlies  could  not  provide  for  themselves  after 
the  marriage,  and  that  they  had  not  sufficient  discernment  to  enter  into  a 
contract  of  such  moment. 


340  LETTER  XXVI. 

traditions  and  all  received  opinions ;  it  is  neither  the 
liberty  of  being  a  monarchist  in  a  republican  country,  nor 
that  of  sacrificing  the  honour  of  the  poor  man's  wife  or 
daughter  to  one's  base  passions  ;  it  is  not  even  the  liberty 
to  enjoy  one's  wealth  by  a  public  display,  for  public 
opinion  has  its  sumptuary  laws,  to  which  all  must  conform 
under  pain  of  moral  outlawry  ;  nor  even  that  of  living  in 
private  different  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  liberty 
of  the  Yankee  is  essentially  limited  and  special  like  the 
nature  of  the  race.  We  should  consider  it  as  framed  after 
the  model  of  the  liberty  of  Figaro  ;  but  the  Yankee  is 
satisfied  with  it,  because  it  leaves  him  all  the  latitude  he 
desires,  and  because  of  all  the  lessons  of  the  Bible,  that  of 
the  forbidden  fruit,  which  we  have  not  been  able  to  fix  in 
our  brain,  has  made  the  deepest  impression  on  his. 

As  the  Yankee  does  riot  suffer  under  these  restraints, 
as  he  is,  or  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  thinks  him- 
self, free,  a  preventive  authority  is  unnecessary  for  him. 
This  is  the  reason  why  there  is  no  appearance  of  authority 
in  New  England,  and  that  an  armed  force,  a  police,  are 
even  more  unknown  there  than  in  the  rest  of  the  Union. 
The  absence  of  a  visible  authority  imposes  on  us,  and  we 
think  that  the  American  in  general,  and  the  Yankee  in 
particular,  is  more  free  than  we  are.  I  am  persuaded, 
however,  that  if  we  measure  liberty  by  the  number  of 
actions  that  are  permitted  or  tolerated  in  public  and  private 
life,  the  advantage  is  on  our  side,  not  only  in  comparison 
with  New  England,  but  also  with  the  white  population  of 
the  South. 

The  Virginian  is  more  disposed  to  understand  liberty  in 
our  manner.  His  disposition  has  a  greater  resemblance  to 
ours  ;  his  faculties  are  much  less  special,  more  general 
than  those  of  the  Yankee  ;  his  mind  is  more  ardent,  his 
tastes  more  varied.  But  it  is  the  Yankee  that  now  rules 
the  Union  ;  it  is  his  liberty  which  has  given  its  principal 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  341 

features  to  the  model  of  American  liberty.  Yet  to  extend 
its  empire,  it  has  been  obliged  to  borrow  some  of  the 
characteristic  traits  of  Virginian  liberty ;  or,  I  might  say, 
of  French  liberty,  for  the  high-priest  of  American  demo- 
cracy was  a  Virginian,  who  had  imbibed  in  Paris  the  doc- 
trines of  the  philosophy  of  the  18th  century.  American 
liberty,  as  it  now  is,  may  be  considered  the  result  of  a 
mixture,  in  unequal  proportions,  of  the  theories  of  Jeffer- 
son with  the  New  England  usages.  From  these  dissimi- 
lar tendencies  has  resulted  a  series  of  contradictory  mea- 
sures, which  have  become  strangely  complicated  with  each 
other,  and  which  might  puzzle  and  deceive  a  careless 
observer.  It  is  in  consequence  of  these  opposite  influences 
in  the  bosom  of  American  society,  that  such  conflicting 
judgments  have  been  passed  upon  it ;  it  is  because  the 
Yankee  type  is  at  present  the  stronger,  whilst  the  Virginian 
was  superior  in  the  period  of  the  revolution,  that  the  ideas 
which  the  sight  of  America  now  suggests,  are  so  different 
from  those  which  she  inspired  at  the  epoch  of  Indepen- 
dence. 


LETTER   XXVII. 
SOCIAL    IMPROVEMENT. 

CHARLESTON,  SEPTEMBER  1,  1835. 

THE  United  States  are  certainly  the  land  of  promise  for 
the  labouring  class.  What  a  contrast  between  our  Europe 
and  America !  After  landing  in  New  York,  I  thought 
every  day  was  Sunday,  for  the  whole  population  that 
throngs  Broadway  seemed  to  be  arrayed  in  their  Sunday's 


342  LETTER  XXVII. 

best.  None  of  those  countenances  ghastly  with  the  pri- 
vations or  the  foul  air  of  Paris ;  nothing  like  our  wretched 
scavengers,  our  ragmen,  and  corresponding  classes  of  the 
other  sex.  Every  man  was  warmly  clad  in  an  outer  gar- 
ment ;  every  woman  had  her  cloak  and  bonnet  of  the 
latest  Paris  fashion.  Rags,  filth,  and  suffering  degrade  the 
woman  even  more  than  the  man  ;  and  one  of  the  most 
striking  features  in  the  physiognomy  of  the  United  States, 
is,  undeniably,  the  change  which  has  been  introduced, 
in  the  train  of  the  general  prosperity,  into  the  physical 
condition  of  women.*  The  earnings  of  the  man  being 
sufficient  for  the  support  of  the  family,  the  woman  has  no 
other  duties  than  the  care  of  the  household,  a  circumstance 
still  more  advantageous  for  her  children  than  for  herself. 
It  is  now  a  universal  rule  among  the  Anglo-Americans, 
that  the  woman  is  exempt  from  all  heavy  work,  and  she 
is  never  seen,  for  instance,  taking  part  in  the  labours  of 
the  field,  nor  in  carrying  burdens.f  Thus  freed  from 
employments  unsuited  to  her  delicate  constitution,  the 
sex  has  also  escaped  that  hideous  ugliness  and  repulsive 
coarseness  of  complexion  which  toil  and  privation  every 
where  else  bring  upon  them.  Every  woman  here  has  the 
features  as  well  as  the  dress  of  a  lady  ;  every  woman  here 
is  called  a  lady,  and  strives  to  appear  so.  You  would 
search  in  vain  among  the  Anglo-Americans,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  that  of  the  Mississippi,  for 
-one  of  those  wretched  objects,  who  are  feminine  only  with 
the  physiologist,  in  whom  our  cities  abound,  or  for  one  of 
those  haggish  beldams  that  fill  our  markets  and  three 

*  The  legal  condition  of  all  classes  of  females  in  the  United  States  is 
the  same  as  that  of  the  women  of  the  middle  classes  in  England.  The 
same  is  the  case  with  their  moral  condition,  except  that  they  have  even  more 
liberty  before  marriage,  and  are  more  dependent  after. 

t  In  England  a  woman  is  never  seen,  as  with  us,  bearing  a  hamper  of 
dung  on  her  back,  or  labouring  at  the  forge. 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  343 

fourths  of  our  fields.  You  will  find  specimens  of  the  for- 
mer class  only  among  the  Indians  and  negroes,  and  of  the 
latter,  only  among  the  Canadian  French  and  Pennsylvania 
Germans ;  for  their  women  labour  at  least  as  much  as  the 
men.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  English  race,  that  they  have 
ever  and  every  where,  as  much  as  possible,  interpreted  the 
superiority  of  the  man  to  the  woman,  as  reserving  to  the 
former  the  charge  of  the  ruder  and  harder  forms  of  toil. 
A  country  in  which  woman  is  treated  according  to  this 
principle  presents  the  aspect  of  a  new  and  better  world. 

Figure  to  yourself  an  Irish  peasant,  who  at  home  could 
scarcely  earn  enough  to  live  on  potatoes,  who  would  look 
upon  himself  as  a  rich  man  if  he  owned  an  acre  of  ground, 
but  who,  on  stepping  ashore  at  New  York,  finds  himself 
able  to  earn  a  dollar  a  day  by  the  mere  strength  of  his 
arm.  He  feeds  and  lodges  himself  for  two  dollars  a  week, 
and  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight  he  may  have  saved  enough 
to  buy  ten  acres  of  the  most  fertile  land  in  the  world. 
The  distance  from  New  York  to  the  West,  is  great,  it  is 
true  ;  but  the  fare  on  the  great  canal  is  trifling,  and  he  can 
easily  pay  his  way  by  the  work  of  his  hands.  It  is  also 
true,  that  the  poorest  Irishman  would  not  think  of  buying 
so  little  as  ten  acres ;  the  least  that  one  buys  in  the  West 
is  eighty.  What  of  that  ?  The  savings  of  a  few  months 
will  enable  him  to  compass  them  ;  besides,  Uncle  Sam 
favours  emigrants,  and  if,  in  theory,  he  does  not  sell  his 
land  on  credit,  he  is,  in  fact,  very  indulgent  to  the  pio- 
neer who  comes  to  subdue  the  savage  wilderness,  and  he 
allows  him  to  occupy  the  soil  temporarily  without  charge. 
Thus  the  Irish,  who  would  go  to  fisticuffs  with  any  body 
for  denying  in  their  presence  that  the  isle  of  Erin  was  a 
terrestrial  paradise,  and  who,  under  the  inspiration  of 
whiskey,  sing  the  glories  of  that  first  pearl  of  the  sea,  quit 
it  by  fifty  thousands  for  the  United  States.  On  their 
arrival,  they  cannot  believe  their  own  eyes ;  they  feel  of 


344  LETTER  XXVII. 

themselves  to  find  out  whether  they  are  not  under  some 
spell.  They  do  not  dare  to  describe  to  then-  friends  in 
Europe  the  streams  of  milk  and  honey  that  flow  through 
this  promised  land.* 

Even  in  this  section  of  the  country,  where  the  workman 
in  the  towns  and  the  labourer  in  the  country,  instead  of  being 
as  in  the  North  the  sovereigns  of  the  country,  are  slaves, 
there  is  more  plenty,  more  physical  comfort  among  the  la- 
bouring class  than  is  found  amongst  us.  The  coloured  popu- 
lation, therefore,  increases  in  numbers  faster  than  our  rural 
population.  Not  that  our  peasant  gives  birth  to  fewer 
children  than  the  blacks  of  Virginia  and  Carolina ;  but 
death,  led  by  the  hand  of  want,  is  active  in  keeping  down 
the  excessive  multiplication  of  arms  that  would  soon  be- 
come formidable  competitors  of  the  fathers,  and  in  closing 
forever  mouths  that  would  cry  for  bread  which  their  pa- 
rents could  not  supply.  The  attention  of  the  benevolent 
in  Europe  has  long  been  directed  towards  the  reduction  of 
the  public  expenditures,  and  a  more  equal  distribution  of 
the  burden  of  taxation,  as  a  means  of  improving  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor ;  but  all  these  plans,  supposing  them  to 
succeed  according  to  the  views  of  the  projectors,  would 
merely  amount  to  taking  a  few  coppers  less  from  the 
pockets  of  the  poorer  class.  Whilst  a  system  of  measures 
concerted  in  such  a  manner  as  to  diffuse  among  them  a 
love  of  order  and  habits  of  regularity  and  industry,  to  en- 
large the  field  of  labour,  and  to  render  its  terms  more 
favourable  to  them,  would  have  the  effect  to  fill  those 
pockets.  The  relief  of  one  class  of  the  community  by 
merely  shifting  its  burden  to  the  back  of  another,  has  a 


*  An  Irishman,  who  had  recently  arrived,  showed  his  master  a  letter 
which  he  had  just  written  to  his  family  :  "But,  Patrick,"  said  his  master, 
"  why  do  you  say  that  you  have  meat  three  times  a  week,  when  you  have 
it  three  times  a  day  ? "  "  Why  is  it  ?  "  replied  Pat ;  "  it  is  because  they 
wouldn't  believe  me,  if  I  told  them  so." 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  345 

revolutionary  character  which  ill  agrees  with  the  notions 
of  a  generation  that  is  weary  of  revolutions,  or  with  the 
nature  of  a  government  established  for  the  very  purpose  of 
staying  the  revolutionary  flood ;  on  the  contrary,  all  that 
develops  the  resources  of  industry  is  in  harmony  with  the 
present  leaning  of  all  minds.  Labour  is  an  admirable  in- 
strument of  concord,  for  all  interests  gain  by  the  prosper- 
ity of  industry.  This  is  the  pure  and  true  source  of  all 
wealth,  public  and  private.  Labour  alone  creates  ;  and  it 
is  it  alone  that  can  relieve  the  wants  of  the  needy,  without 
impoverishing  him  who  has  enough,  or  even  reducing  the 
luxury  of  the  opulent ;  that  can  give  wealth  to  some,  com- 
petency to  others,  and  to  all  the  fowl  in  the  pot,  which, 
since  the  revolt  of  Luther,  has  been  the  great  social  prob- 
lem in  the  material  order  of  things. 

The  admirable  prosperity  of  the  United  States  is  the 
fruit  of  labour,  much  more  than  of  any  reform  in  taxation. 
The  soil  has  not  the  luxuriant  fertility  of  the  tropical 
regions ;  roasted  larks  fly  into  nobody's  mouth  ;  but  the 
American  is  a  model  of  industry.  This  country  is  not  a 
second  edition  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  republics ;  it  is  a 
gigantic  commercial  house,  which  owns  its  wheat-fields  in 
the  Northwest,  its  cotton,  rice  and  tobacco  plantations  in 
the  South,  which  maintains  its  sugar  works,  its  establish- 
ments for  salting  provisions,  and  some  good  beginnings  of 
manufactures,  which  has  its  harbours  in  the  Northeast 
thronged  with  fine  ships,  well  built  and  better  manned, 
by  means  of  which  it  undertakes  to  carry  for  the  world, 
and  to  speculate  on  the  wants  of  all  nations.  Every 
American  has  a  passion  for  work,  and  the  means  of  grati- 
fying it.  If  he  wishes  to  cultivate  the  ground,  he  finds 
waste  land  enough  for  his  farm  in  the  Northwest  or  the 
Southwest.  If  he  chooses  to  be  a  mechanic,  that  he  may 
finally  become  a  manufacturer,  he  has  no  difficulty  in  get- 
ting credit ;  he  finds  unemployed  waterfalls  all  along  the 
44 


346  LETTER  XXVII. 

rivers,  of  which  he  takes  possession,  and  on  which  he  sets 
up  his  wheels.  If  he  has  a  taste  for  commerce,  he  puts 
himself  into  the  hands  of  a  merchant,  who  after  some 
years  of  apprenticeship  and  trial,  sends  him  to  take  charge 
of  his  business  in  the  interior,  or  to  the  Antilles,  or  South 
America,  or  Liverpool,  or  Havre,  or  Canton.  He  may 
labour  without  apprehension,  and  produce  without  stint ; 
having  no  rent  to  pay,  his  flour,  his  salt  provisions,  fear 
no  competition  in  the  markets  of  South  America  and  the 
sugar  islands.  As  for  cotton,  the  United  States  alone  al- 
most supply  the  world,  and  he  cannot  plant  enough.  The 
career  open  to  the  Americans,  as  active,  bold,  and  intelli- 
gent merchants,  is  unlimited,  and  is  entered  with  admira- 
ble spirit  and  success ;  they  beat  their  rivals,  even  the 
English,  on  every  field.  If  the  American  devotes  himself 
to  some  branch  of  domestic  industry,  here  he  finds  ample 
room  for  activity,  for  the  home  consumption  is  indefinite ; 
every  body  here  enjoys  himself,  or  at  least  spends.  Every 
one  produces  much,  because  all  consume  much  ;  each  con- 
sumes freely,  because  he  gains  freely,  has  no  fears  for  the 
morrow  neither  for  himself  nor  his  children,  or  at  least 
takes  no  thought  for  it. 

The  most  efficient  measures  of  the  public  administration 
for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  people  in 
France,  would  be  such  as  would  tend  to  increase  the  in- 
dustrial qualities  of  the  mass,  and  to  furnish  them  with  the 
means  of  putting  these  qualities  in  action ;  such  are,  a 
system  of  industrial  education ;  the  establishment  of  insti- 
tutions of  credit,  which  should  place  within  the  reach 
of  all,  the  instruments  of  industry,  or,  in  other  words,  cap- 
ital, which  is  now  inaccessible  not  only  to  the  operative  and 
the  labourer,  but  to  a  great  proportion  of  the  bourgeoisie  ; 
the  execution  of  a  complete  system  of  routes  of  communi- 
cation, from  village  roads  to  railroads,  for  manufactures 
and  commerce  are  impracticable  where  facilities  of  trans- 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  347 

portation  do  not  exist ;  the  modification  of  many  laws  and 
customs,  judicial  and  administrative,  that  now  embarrass 
industry,  without  being  of  the  least  advantage  in  any 
point  of  view. 

I  dare  hardly  speak  of  popular  education,  where  I  now 
am.  The  people  in  the  Southern  States,  are  slaves.  The 
maxim  here  is  that  they  need  no  instruction  ;  to  instil  into 
them  a  sentiment  of  fear  is  the  only  moral  nature  suitable 
to  their  condition.  They  have,  therefore,  no  other  educa- 
tion than  that  of  their  own  hands,  and  that,  of  course,  must 
be  limited,  because  their  intellectual  and  moral  nature  is 
in  fetters.  In  the  Northern  States,  the  labouring  classes 
are  whites,  and  there  the  law  makes  a  liberal  provision  for 
popular  instruction.  Almost  every  where  in  the  North,  all 
the  children  go  to  the  primary  schools.  Elementary  edu- 
cation is  there  of  a  more  practical  character  than  with  us ; 
it  is  our  primary  instruction,  with  the  omission  of  the 
ideal,  and  the  addition  of  some  instruction  in  commercial 
and  economical  affairs;  but  there  is  no  practical  industrial 
education  here  except  by  apprenticeship.  There  are  no 
mechanical  or  agricultural  seminaries.  It  is  not  thought 
necessary  here  to  shut  up  the  young  in  such  institutions  to 
inspire  them  with  a  taste  for  commerce,  agriculture,  or  the 
mechanical  arts ;  they  suck  it  in  with  their  mother's  milk  ; 
they  breathe  the  air  of  industry  under  the  paternal  roof, , 
in  the  places  of  public  resort,  in  the  public  meetings,  every 
where,  at  all  times,  and  in  every  act  of  life.  When  an 
American  wishes  to  learn  a  trade,  he  goes  into  the  work- 
shop, the  counting-house,  the  manufactory,  as  an  appren- 
tice. By  seeing  others  act,  he  learns  how  to  act  himself  : 
he  becomes  an  artisan,  a  manufacturer,  a  merchant ;  all 
the  faculties  of  his  firm  and  watchful  mind,  all  the  ener- 
gies of  his  ambitious  spirit  are  centred  in  his  workshop  or 
warehouse.  He  directs  all  his  powers  to  making  himself 
master  of  his  business,  to  learn  the  lessons  of  others'  ex- 


348  LETTER  XXVII. 

perience,  and  he  succeeds  of  course,  as  every  one  does  who 
obeys  the  voice  of  his  destiny.  I  do  not  pretend  that  the 
Americans  are  right,  in  not  having  recourse  to  a  theoretical 
preparation  for  a  particular  branch  of  business,  for  which 
we  have  instituted  such  costly  establishments.  I  only  re- 
cord the  fact,  with  the  observation  that  they  get  on  very 
well  without  it.  Our  national  character  has  little  dispo- 
sition for  business  ;  we  work  from  necessity  and  not  from 
choice.  Our  ideas  have  little  of  a  commercial  or  mechan- 
ical turn.  To  make  a  Frenchman  a  skilful  husbandman, 
an  able  merchant,  a  dexterous  mechanic,  a  long  and  pain- 
ful training  is  necessary ;  he  must  change  his  natural 
bent,  and  metamorphose  all  his  thoughts  and  habits  ;  in  a 
word,  with  us  a  special  professional  education  must  precede 
apprenticeship.  The  American  learns  by  example  merely  J 
we  must  learn  by  general  principles  ;  we  stand  more  in 
need  of  them,  and  we  have  a  greater  aptitude  for  master- 
ing them,  than  they. 

****** 

Before  passing  to  the  institutions  best  suited  to  develop 
industry,  I  would  observe  that  a  political  system  which 
should  be  particularly  calculated  to  create  and  sustain  them, 
cannot  be  taxed  with  materialism.  Industry  influences 
the  moral  nature  of  man  ;  the  material  prosperity  of  a  peo- 
ple has  an  important  bearing  on  the  public  liberties.  Men 
cannot  practically  enjoy  the  rights  secured  to  them  by 
law,  when  they  are  manacled  and  fettered  by  poverty  ; 
the  English  and  their  children  in  America  call  compe- 
tency, independence.  The  Anglo-Americans  have  reached 
wealth  through  their  political  liberty ;  other  nations,  and 
we,  I  think,  are  of  the  number,  must  arrive  at  political 
franchises  by  the  progress  of  national  wealth.  I  now  come 
to  the  consideration  of  a  credit  system. 

Suppose,  on  one  side,  the  land -holder  who  has  granaries 
bursting  with  corn,  his  stable  filled  with  cattle,  his  store- 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  349 

house  crowded  with  barrels  of  whiskey  and  salt  meat  ; 
then,  the  merchant  with  his  warehouses  full  of  cloth,  and 
the  grocer,  well  supplied  with  tea,  coffee,  and  sugar  ;  and 
on  the  other,  the  labourer,  the  mason,  the  carpenter,   the 
smith,  all  skilled  in  their  trade  and  wanting  work  to  sup- 
ply them  with  daily  food.     A  canal  or  a  railroad  is  pro- 
jected ;  the  country  has  capital  enough  to  construct  it, 
since  it  contains  the  arms  to  execute  the  works,  and  the 
necessaries  for  subsisting  the  labourers.     The  construction 
of  the  work  is  indispensable  in  order  to  enable  the  work- 
man to  turn  his  muscles  to  account,  and  gain  his  daily 
bread,  and  to  give  the  merchant  a  market  for  his  goods. 
Now  in  this  case,  amongst  us,  there  is  no  other  medium  of 
communication  between  the  labourer  and  the  holder  of 
articles  of  consumption,  than  the  engineer,  a  man  of  sci- 
ence but  not  of  capital,  and  the  citizens  of  the  towns  which 
are  interested  in  the  scheme  ;  these  last  have  a  competence 
and  no  more,  and  they  have  no  means  of  raising,  on  their 
lands  or  their  houses,  the  ready  money  which  rriust  serve 
as  a  medium  of  exchange  between  the  wares  of  the  mer- 
chant, the  produce  of  the  cultivator,  and  the  labour  of  the 
operative.     Amongst  us,  therefore,  the  most  useful  projects 
remain  on  paper.    In  this  country,  by  the  side  of  the  engi- 
neer and  the  citizen,  you  have  one  or  more  banks,  in  which 
all,   labourers,  landholders,  and  traders,  put    confidence, 
often,  indeed,  much  more  than  is  deserved.     The  bank 
guaranties  to  the  cultivator  and  the  trader  payment  for 
their  produce  and  merchandise,  and  to  the  labourer,  his 
wages  ;  for  this  end,  it  offers  the  share-holder  of  the  pro- 
jected enterprise,  in  exchange  for  his  personal  engagement 
renewable  at  a  certain  date,  and  often  on  the  pledge  of 
the  very  canal  or  railroad  shares,  a  paper-money,  which 
the  labourer  receives  in  payment  of  his  wages,  and  with 
which  he  procures  the  necessary  supplies  from  the  pro- 


350  LETTER  XXVII. 

ducer  or  the  trader.     Thus  every  judicious  and   practi- 
cable project  is  at  once  carried  out  into  execution. 

In  order  to  arrive  at  the  same  result  amongst  us,  it 
would  be  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  that  we  should 
possess  somewhat  more  of  that  genius  for  business  which 
is  the  characteristic  of  the  American,  and,  in  the  next, 
that  the  banks  should  be  able  to  accept  with  confidence 
the  engagements  of  the  share-holder  of  the  work  ;  the  latter 
requisite,  could  not  be  obtained  as  in  the  United  States, 
because  amongst  us,  except  in  the  manufacturing  towns, 
the  bourgeois  in  general  does  not  engage  in  business  ;  he 
is  a  proprietor  living  on  his  income  and  not  increasing  it. 
The  American  bourgeois,  on  the  contrary,  is  actively  en- 
gaged in  business,  and  is  constantly  employed  in  increa- 
sing his  means ;  and  besides,  the  banks  have  more  hold 
on  his  real  property,  than  they  could  have  in  France. 
.  Finally,  it  would  be  necessary  that  the  public,  proprie- 
tors and  labourers,  traders  as  well  as  landholders,  should 
have  full  confidence  in  the  bills  issued  by  the  bank,  which 
is  impossible  in  a  country  where  all  paper-money  suggests 
the  idea  of  assignats.  Even  if  the  people  had  not  that 
disastrous  experiment  before  their  eyes,  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  teach  them  to  look  upon  a  scrap  of  paper,  although 
redeemable  at  sight  with  coin,  as  equivalent  to  the  metals. 
A  metallic  currency,  has,  in  our  notions,  a  superiority  to 
any  other  representative  of  value,  which  to  an  American 
or  an  Englishman  is  quite  incomprehensible  ;  to  our  peas- 
ants, it  is  the  object  of  a  mysterious  feeling,  a  real  worship  : 
and,  in  this  respect  we  are  all  of  us  more  or  less  peasants. 
The  Americans,  on  the  other  hand,  have  a  firm  faith  in 
paper ;  and  it  is  not  a  blind  faith,  for  if  we  have  had  our 
assignats,  they  have  had  their  continental  money,  and 
they  need  not  go  far  back  in  their  history  to  find  a  record 
of  the  failure  of  the  banks  in  a  body.  Their  confidence 
is  founded  in  reason,  their  courage  is  a  matter  of  reflexion. 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  351 

Last  winter,  for  example,  it  was  known  to  the  public  that 
certain  banks  in  New  York  had  on  hand  only  five  dollars 
in  specie  for  one  hundred  paper-dollars  in  circulation,  and 
even  less.  In  France  this  would  have  been  the  signal  of 
a  general  panic,  and  the  bill-holders  would  have  thrown 
themselves  in  crowds  upon  the  bank  to  exchange  their 
paper  for  coin.  The  bank,  thus  stormed,  would  have 
stopped  payment;  fifty  or  seventy  bills  in  a  hundred, 
would  have  become  mere  rags  in  the  hands  of  the  holders, 
and  what  would  be  more  fatal,  the  banks,  which  lean  upon 
each  other,  and  hold  each  other's  notes  to  a  large  amount, 
would  have  failed  one  after  another,  as  those  of  the  Feder- 
al District  did  last  April.  Each  bank  failure  would  have 
been  followed  by  numerous  individual  failures,  which 
would  have  involved  other  banks  in  their  fall,  and  the 
country  would  have  been  ruined.  The  Americans  in  this 
fearful  crisis,  did  not  quail ;  they  stood  firm,  like  veterans 
under  the  fire  of  a  battery  or  encountering  a  cloud  of  Arabs 
at  the  foot  of  the  pyramids  with  bayonets  crossed  and  ser- 
ried files.  None  of  the  New  York  banks  stopped  payment, 
and  scarcely  six  or  seven  small  banks  failed  through  the 
country. 

Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves ;  it  will  be  a  long  time 
before  we  shall  be  in  a  condition,  in  France,  to  enjoy  such 
a  system  of  credit  as  exists  in  the  United  States  or  Eng- 
land ;  in  this  respect  we  are  yet  in  a  state  of  barbarism, 
from  which  we  cannot  pass  to  a  more  perfect  condition  of 
things,  except  by  a  complete  revolution  in  our  commercial 
habits  and  ideas,  and  even  to  a  certain  degree  of  our  na- 
tional manners. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  decide  beforehand  what  the  precise 
organisation  of  a  system  of  credit  for  France  should  be  ; 
but  I  think  it  may  be  safely  affirmed,  that  the  system 
which  prevails  here  would  not  do  for  us.  In  appropriating 
to  ourselves  the  improvements  of  the  English  and  of  their 


352  LETTER  XXVII. 

successors  in  America,  we  must  modify  them  in  conformity 
with  the  genius  of  the  nation,  or  they  will  wither  on 
our  soil.  As  the  East  is  the  cradle  of  religion,  so  England 
in  our  day  is  the  mould  in  which  the  political  and  com- 
mercial institutions  that  seem  destined  to  rule  the  world 
have  been  cast ;  but  as  the  religious  conceptions  of  the 
East  have  had  to  undergo  a  radical  change  in  order  to  gain 
a  footing  in  the  West,  so  the  political  and  commercial 
creations  of  our  neighbours,  must  undergo  a  transforma- 
tion before  they  can  become  fixed  amongst  us.  Coming 
into  the  world  under  circumstances  of  a  peculiar  nature, 
amidst  a  people  of  an  original  and  peculiar  character,  bom 
under  the  unhealthy  shadow  of  conquest  and  civil  war, 
they  are  not  suited  to  be  transferred  bodily  to  another  soil. 
They  are  already  undergoing  modifications  in  America, 
although  they  are  here  amongst  the  scions  of  the  English 
stock.  Among  the  people  of  the  south  of  Europe  and 
among  us,  when  they  have  taken  their  final  shape,  it  is 
probable  that  they  will  no  more  resemble  their  British 
type,  than  a  Benedictin  or  a  Sister  of  Charity  resembles  an 
Indian  fakir  or  dervish.  It  would  be  presumptuous  to 
attempt  to  pronounce  at  present  what  precise  form  the 
institutions  of  credit  will  assume  ;  yet  it  is  reasonable  to 
presume,  that  to  be  in  harmony  with  our  character  and 
disposition,  they  must  lean  upon  the  government,  combine 
their  operation  with  its  action,  become,  in  a  word,  public 
establishments,  and  they  must  be  ready  to  extend  a  large 
share  of  their  benefits  to  the  agricultural  interest. 

The  public  credit,  which,  in  Prance,  must  be  the  bulwark 
of  private  credit,  still  feels  and  will  continue  to  feel  the  effect 
of  our  former  bankruptcy.  It  should  be  our  aim  to  make 
the  breaches  of  the  public  faith  under  the  monarchy  and 
under  the  republic  forgotten,  and  to  strengthen  the  foun- 
dations and  enlarge-  the  sphere  of  the  national  credit, 
which  will  thus  become  a  suitable  basis  for  the  banks,  for 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  353 

in  France  we  shall  not  trust  in  the  bankers,  nor  will 
the  banks  have  confidence  in  themselves,  any  further  than 
they  are  propped  up  by  the  government,  and  become  in 
fact  public  establishments.  Many  sound  heads  consider 
it  indispensable  that  the  system  of  credit,  should  be,  in 
many  respects,  amalgamated  with  the  financial  system  of 
the  State.  This  is  no  rash  speculation,  or  untried  no- 
velty. In  the  Southern  and  Western  States,  which, 
like  France,  are  chiefly  agricultural,  the  principal  banks 
are  dependent  on  the  State  governments,  they  are  employed 
in  collecting  the  taxes,  and  transferring  funds  on  account 
of  the  State  .treasury.  This  is  the  case,  in  a  greater  or 
less  degree,  in  the  Carolinas,  Georgia  and  Alabama,  and 
still  more  so  in  Indiana  and  Illinois. 

The  greatest  change,  which  institutions  of  credit  will 
have'  to  undergo  in  their  introduction  amongst  us,  will  be 
the  adaptation  of  them  to  the  wants  of  agriculture.  We 
are  more  an  agricultural  than  a  manufacturing  people  ; 
three  fourths  or  four  fifths  of  our  population  live  by  agri- 
culture. The  English  are  especially  devoted  to  manufac- 
tures and  commerce  ;  their  banks  are  most  easily  acces- 
sible to  the  merchant,  next  to  the  manufacturer,  and  but 
little  or  not  at  all,  to  the  agriculturist.  The  feudal  traits, 
which  landed  property  still  retains  among  them,  contri- 
bute to  this  result.  In  this  country,  the  banks  have  been 
organised  on  the  English  model.  They  have  become  ex- 
cessively numerous  in  the  Northern  States,*  which  are 


*  In  1811,  out  of  88  local  banks,  there  were  55,  or  two  thirds,  in  New 
England  and  New  York,  although  those  States  contained  but  little  more  than 
one  third  of  the  population.  In  1834,  the  States  north  of  the  Potomac  had 
414  banks,  with  a  capital  of  106  millions;  the  Southern  and  Western  States 
had  only  88  with  a  capital  of  60  millions,  about  one  half  of  which  were  in  a 
few  commercial  towns.  The  population  of  the  former  was  then  6,500,000, 
of  the  latter  7,500,000 ;  the  ratio  of  the  banks,  therefore,  was  as  4  to  3, 
while  that  of  the  population  was  as  6  to  7.  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
alone,  in  which  the  character  of  the  mother-country  is  most  strongly  pre- 

45 


354  LETTER  XXVII. 

inhabited  by  a  people  eminently  possessing  the  manufac- 
turing and  commercial  spirit.  Those  which  have  been 
established  in  the  agricultural  States  of  the  South  and 
West,  have  fallen  through  at  different  crises,  of  which 
the  most  disastrous  was  that  of  1819.  In  1828,  the  local 
banks  had  ceased  to  exist  in  Kentucky  and  Missouri ;  each 
of  the  States  of  Tennessee,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Mississippi, 
and  Alabama,  had  but  one,  or  had  not  yet  established  any. 
At  present  they  are  created  in  the  South  and  West  with 
something  of  a  public  character,  the  state  either  becoming 
the  principal  share-holder  or  guarantying  the  loan  for  raising 
a  capital.  Several  of  them  have  a  decided  tendency  to 
connect  themselves  with  the  agricultural  interest.  Lou- 
isiana has  adopted  the  most  comprehensive  and  important 
measures  in  this  respect.* 

It  is  evident  that  the  extension  of  credit  in  France 
would  be  the  means  of  a  greater  saving  to  the  people, 
than  any  reform  in  the  budget.  The  average  rate  of 
interest  on  all  transactions  of  all  kinds  is  at  least  1 5  or  20, 
perhaps,  25  per  cent.  Suppose  that  this  could  be  reduced 

served,  had  17*4  banks  or  one  third  of  the  whole  number  of  local  banks, 
with  a  capital  of  40  millions,  or  one-fourth  of  the  whole  banking  capital 
of  the  country,  although  their  population  was  only  one  thirteenth  of  the 
whole  population.  The  extension  of  the  culture  of  cotton,  and  of  the  trade 
which  it  creates,  has  since,  however,  tended  to  turn  the  balance  in  favour  of 
the  south,  and  several  large  banks  have  been  established  in  the  southern 
capitals  with  branches  in  the  interior. 

*  Several  bank  charters  in  Louisiana  contain  a  provision  obliging  the  bank 
to  lend  a  large  proportion  of  the  capital  to  the  planters.  The  Citizen's 
Bank  is  bound  to  advance  one  half  its  capital  to  landholders,  beside  which 
they  have  the  advantage  of  being  share-holders  without  having  paid  up  any- 
thing. The  bank  borrowed  its  effective  capital  of  European  capitalists;  its 
nominal  capital  is  double  that  sum.  It  gives  in  return  mortgages  on  the 
estates  of  the  share-holders  to  that  amount,  with  the  guarantee  of  the  mortgage 
by  the  State.  Each  share-holder  is  entitled  to  credit  to  the  amount  of  half 
his  stock  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent.  The  other  half  of  the  capital  is  devoted 
to  the  commercial  operations  of  the  bank.  The  share-holders  then,  have  their 
share  in  the  profits.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  system  depends  on  the  legisla- 
tion in  regard  to  mortgages. 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  355 

only  two  per  cent.,  a  result  which  does  not  seem  very  diffi- 
cult to  be  obtained,  it  is  plain,  that  as  positive  a  saving 
would  be  made  to  the  country  as  could  be  made  by  a  dimi- 
nution of  the  expenses  of  government,  and  that  the  former 
would  he  applicable  to  as  many  millions  as  the  latter  would 
be  to  thousands.  It  is  not  possible  to  give  an  exact  esti- 
mate of  the  amount  of  the  annual  transactions  in  France,  it 
must  be  enormous,  for  every  time  an  article  of  property 
changes  hands,  there  is  a  transaction  affected  by  the  rate  of 
interest ;  now  the  total  annual  produce  of  French  industry 
is  estimated  at  nearly  2,000  millions  dollars  ;  and  we  must 
suppose  the  amount  of  transactions  to  be  ten  or  twelve 
times  greater.  The  annual  amount  of  commercial  trans- 
actions alone  is  about  4,000  millions.  Admitting  the 
average  credit  to  be  four  months,  and  the  mass  of  trans- 
actions to  amount  to  16,000  millions,  a  saving  of  two  per 
cent,  a  year  would  be  equal  to  100  millions.  Add  to  this 
that  the  creation  of  institutions  of  credit  would  make  a  saving 
once  for  all  of  300  or  400  millions,  by  the  substitution  of 
paper  for  a  portion  of  the  metallic  currency.  ( See  Letter  V. ) 
It  would  be  superfluous  to  dwell  upon  the  salutary 
influence  of  a  judicious  system  of  public  works  on 
the  prosperity  of  all  classes,  and  more  especially  of  the 
lower  classes.  On  this  point  every  one  is  already  con- 
vinced ;  it  would  be  an  enterprise  worthy  of  a  great  people 
to  undertake  such  a  system,  which  should  include  canals, 
local  roads,  and  railroads  on  the  great  routes ;  which 
should  drain  our  bogs  and  supply  water  to  the  districts  that 
need  irrigation ;  which  should  convert  Rouen  and  Havre, 
Lille  and  Calais,  Orleans,  Reims,  and  Troyes  into  suburbs 
of  Paris  ;  ^should  consummate  the  union  of  Belgium  with 
France  ;  should  make  Strasburg  one  of  the  greatest  entre- 
pots in  the  world  ;  should  restore  life  to  Bordeaux,  which 
is  now  pining  away,  by  giving  it  a  more  easy  access  to  the 
central  and  southern  departments ;  should  revive  Nantes, 


356  LETTER  XXVII. 

which  is  dead,  by  connecting  it  with  the  flourishing  inte- 
rior provinces,  and  particularly  with  Paris,  the  heart  of 
France  ;  should  bring  Lyons  into  contact  with  the  Rhine 
and  the  Danube  ;  should  develop  our  mineral  wealth, 
which  now  lies  useless  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  for 
want  of  means  of  transportation  ;  should  not,  as  is  too 
often  the  case,  overlook  our  peaceful  and  laborious  country 
population,  but  should  deliver  every  farm  and  village  from 
the  six  months'  blockade,  to  which  they  are  now  con- 
demned by  the  mud  of  every  winter.  This  would  be 
a  grand  and  noble  enterprise. 

There  is  a  common  bond  of  union  between  the  various 
branches  of  social  improvement ;  a  good  system  of  public 
works  would  exercise  a  powerful  influence  on  the  exten- 
sion of  credit;  and,  reciprocally,  a  liberal  system  of  public 
and  private  credit,  would  communicate  activity  to  public 
enterprises.  I  go  further ;  it  is  impossible  that  our  public 
works  should  be  carried  forward  with  vigour,  without  the 
aid  of  credit.  To  pretend  to  execute  them  wholly  by 
means  of  taxes,  would  be  madness.  Without  public  and 
private  credit,  the  Americans  would  never  have  had  any 
public  works.  They  have  entered  upon  the  construction 
of  their  great  canals  and  their  innumerable  railroads  only 
through  the  instrumentality  of  the  banks  and  their  loans. 
In  1828,  the  three  cities  of  the  Federal  District,  Washing- 
ton, Georgetown,  and  Alexandria,  having  together  a  popu- 
lation of  32,000  souls,  with  little  trade,  no  manufactures, 
or  agricultural  resources,  for  the  country  around  is  sterile, 
subscribed  1,500,000  dollars  towards  the  construction  of 
the  great  canal  from  the  Chesapeake  to  the  Ohio,  raising 
the  funds  by  a  loan  in  Holland.  Our  large  towns  Bor- 
deaux, Marseilles,  Rouen,  Lyons,  will  have  canals  and 
railroads,  whenever  they  shall  see  fit  to  do  with  moderation 
what  Washington,  Georgetown,  and  Alexandria  have 
attempted  on  too  great  a  scale. 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  357 

The  improvement  of  the  means  of  transportation  often 
causes  such  a  fall  in  the  price  of  articles,  that  the  construc- 
tion of  a  canal  or  road  relieves  the  inhabitants  to  an  extent 
much  exceeding  the  amount  of  the  most  oppressive  tax. 
In  France,  where  wine  is  abundant,  and  where  it  is  a 
light  drink  which  does  not  brutify  a  man,  it  is  important 
to  bring  it  within  the  reach  of  the  poorer  classes,  and  to 
accustom  them  to  the  daily  use  of  it.  There  are  still  sev- 
eral districts  in  central  and  southern  France,  in  which 
wine  is  transported  on  the  back  of  mules,  for  a  distance  of 
40  miles.  Transportation,  the  same  distance,  by  a  canal, 
would  only  be  one  sixth  of  the  price  of  mule  carriage,  or 
would  make  a  saving  of  five  cents  a  gallon,  which  is  more 
than  the  excise  on  the  common  wines ;  so  that  the  con- 
struction of  a  canal,  considered  in  this  light,  would  be  a 
greater  relief  to  certain  consumers,  than  the  suppression  of 
the  excise. 

In  regard  to  legislation,  we  have  reason  to  congratulate 
ourselves  on  having  a  uniform  system  of  laws,  instead  of  a 
jumble  of  rules  and  customs  derived  from  all  ages  and 
various  sources.  The  spirit  of  Napoleon  pervaded  the 
creation  of  this  noble  work ;  but  Napoleon  was  wholly 
pre-occupied  with  Roman  ideas  ;  he  wished  to  found  an 
empire  of  adamant  on  the  Roman  model ;  his  counsellors 
were  possessed  with  the  notion  that  the  Roman  law  was 
pure,  absolute,  immutable  justice.  They  have,  therefore, 
given  us  a  code  of  laws,  protecting  various  interests  rather 
according  to  the  degree  of  importance  which  they  possess- 
ed eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  than  that  which  they  have 
acquired  in  modern  times.  In  the  time  of  the  Romans, 
landed  property  was  almost  the  only  property  ;  agriculture 
was  the  only  branch  of  industry  held  in  respect ;  manu- 
factures were  merely  a  department  of  domestic  labour,  and 
were  carried  on  by  the  slaves  in  the  house ;  commerce 
was  abandoned  to  foreigners  and  freedmen.  At  that  time, 
no  one  dreamed  of  the  possibility  of  those  huge  factories 


358  LETTER  XXVII. 

on  the  English  plan,  or  of  that  powerful  machinery  which 
is  the  soul  of  our  industry  ;  or  those  immense  docks  and 
and  store-houses,  which  enable  a  man,  in  his  closet,  to 
arrange  and  direct  the  most  extensive  operations,  without 
touching  an  article  of  merchandise,  or  even  inspecting 
samples,  merely  by  setting  his  signature  to  a  warrant  or  a 
receipt.  The  system  of  accounts  was  then  unknown  ;  the 
idea  of  banks  did  not  occur  to  the  most  far-sighted  intel- 
lect. Governments  took  little  thought  for  the  means  of 
making  exchanges  sure,  easy,  and  speedy  ;  the  great  roads 
opened  by  the  praetors  and  emperors,  were  military  roads. 
Little  care  was  given  to  economy  of  time ;  for  time  has  a 
value  only  in  an  industrious  community.*  On  the  con- 
trary, there  was  every  reason  for  endeavouring  to  keep 
property  in  the  great  families.  Landed  property,  with  re- 
ference to  which  all  the  laws  were  framed,  is  inconsistent 
with  the  idea  of  constant  change.  The  object  of  legisla- 
tion was  stability  and  permanency  ;  the  forms  which  it 
established,  were  favourable  to  delay. 

Following  this  example,  Napoleon  and  his  counsellors 
have  given  us  a  code  of  laws,  in  which  every  thing  is 
sacrificed  to  landed  property.  The  law  treats  the  manu- 
facturer and  the  merchant  with  suspicion  •  it  looks  upon 
them  as  the  sons  of  the  slave  and  the  freedman,  or  at 
least,  as  persons  of  no  consideration,  commoners  whom  it 
is  permitted  to  treat  without  ceremony.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  presumption  is  always  in  favour  of  the  proprie- 
tor ;  he  is  protected  not  because  he  is  a  cultivator  and  pro- 
ducer, but  simply  and  abstractly  because  he  is  a  proprietor, 

*  The  Neapolitans  are  said  to  have  made  the  following  objection  to  a 
company,  which  proposed  to  run  a  steam-boat  between  their  city  and  Sicily  : 
"  Your  boat  takes  us  over  in  one  day,  and  yet  you  demand  the  same  fare,  as 
a  sail  vessel  which  is  three  days.  That  is  absurd ;  how  can  you  expect  that 
we  will  pay  as  much  for  being  found  one  day  as  for  three  ?  "  This  is  the 
reasoning  of  a  people,  who  have  no  idea  of  setting  an  economical  value  on 
time. 


SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  359 

the  owner  of  the  soil,  the  successor  of  the  Roman  patri- 
cian and  the  feudal  lord.  Thus  our  laws  overlook  the 
importance  of  manufacturing  industry,  and  the  great  des- 
tiny which  awaits  it ;  they  shackle  and  check  ti  by  the 
complicated  formalities  to  which  they  subject  it,  and  the 
vexatious  details  with  which  they  embarrass  its  movements. 
Let  me  not,  however,  be  too  severe  on  our  code ;  I  do 
not  know  any  other,  which,  all  things  considered,  is  more 
advantageous  to  industry.  Even  the  American  legislation 
has  retained  the  defects  of  the  English  laws  ;  it  partakes 
in  their  vagueness  and  uncertainty  ;  it  is  under  the  almost 
exclusive  dominion  of  precedents  which  it  still  borrows 
from  English  decisions  as  if  North  America  were  still 
an  English  colony.  In  most  of  the  States,  the  undefined 
and  conflicting  pretensions  of  the  common  law  and  equity 
jurisdiction  still  remain  in  force.  In  some  of  the  old 
States,  as  Virginia,  the  legislation  yet  bears  many  of  the 
features  of  the  feudal  system.  American  law,  however, 
has  the  great  advantage  of  a  simpler  and  less  expensive 
process  than  ours  or  the  English,  and  especially  of  a  great 
economy  of  time  by  a  reduction  of  the  delays  attending 
the  English  and  French  practice.  As  for  the  use  of  the 
jury  in  civil  cases,  it  is  of  doubtful  expediency.  I  often 
hear  it  said,  that  it  would  be  better  to  leave  them  to  three 
judicious  and  irremoveable  judges,  than  to  twelve  citizens, 
who  often  carry  their  individual  prejudices,  or  party  pas- 
sions, or  class  jealousies  into  the  jury-box.  With  a  jury, 
the  influence  of  a  skilful  advocate  often  weighs  much,  the 
merits  of  the  cause  too  little.  Finally,  in  this  country,  the 
commercial  tribunals  have  no  compulsory  jurisdiction  ;  the 
ordinary  courts  take  cognizance  of  all  causes,  unless  there 
is  a  previous  agreement  between  the  parties  to  submit  all 
differences  that  may  arise  between  them  to  arbiters  or  a 
committee  of  the  chamber  of  commerce,  which  is  merely 
a  voluntary  association,  and  is  not  to  be  found  in  all  parts 
of  the  country. 


360  LETTER  XXVIII. 


LETTER   XXVIII. 
SOCIAL    REFORM. 

AUGUSTA,  (GEORGIA,)  SEPTEMBER  3,  1835, 

IT  is  impossible  to  foresee  the  time  when  the  blacks  in 
this  country  shall  be  set  free ;  there  is  here  a  great  gulf 
between  the  black  and  the  white.  The  difficulty  here  is 
not  exactly  of  a  pecuniary  kind  ;  for,  to  apply  to  the  two 
million  and  a  half  of  American  negroes  the  process  which 
the  English  have  applied  to  their  colonies,  only  300  mil- 
lions would  be  required,  a  sum  which  is  not  beyond  the 
means  of  North  America.  By  rendering  the  process  of 
emancipation  more  gradual,  so  as  to  render  it  more  slow  and 
safe  than  in  the  English  Islands,  a  much  less  sum  would  be 
sufficient ;  but  another  obstacle  occurs,  against  which 
money  can  do  nothing.  The  English  nature  is  exclusive  ; 
English  society  is  divided  into  an  endless  number  of  little 
coteries,  each  jealous  of  its  superior,  and  despising  its  in- 
ferior. The  Englishman  is  in  his  own  country,  what 
his  country  is  in  reference  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  an 
islander. 

This  spirit  of  exclusiveness  which  prevails  in  society  at 
home,  appears  again  in  the  relations  of  the  English  with 
other  people.  The  Englishman  cannot  fraternise  with  the 
Red  Skins  or  the  blacks ;  between  him  and  them  there  is 
no  sympathy,  no  mutual  confidence.  The  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans have  retained  and  even  exaggerated  this  Irait  of  their 
fathers  :  and  to  the  men  of  the  North  as  well  as  to  those 
of  the  South,  to  the  Yankee  as  well  as  to  the  Virginian, 
the  negro  is  a  Philistine,  a  son  of  Ham.  In  the  States 
without  slaves,  as  well  as  in  those  in  which  slavery  is 
admitted,  the  elevation  of  the  black  seems  impossible. 


SOCIAL  REFORM.  361 

An  American  of  the  North  or  of  the  South,  whether  he 
be  rich  or  poor,  ignorant  or  learned,  avoids  a  contact  with 
the  negro,  as  if  he  were  infected  with  the  plague.  Free 
or  slave,  well  or  meanly  clad,  the  black  or  the  man  of 
colour  is  always  a  Pariah ;  he  is  denied  a  lodging  at  the 
inns  ;  at  the  theatre  or  in  the  steamboats  he  has  a  distinct 
place  allotted  him  far  from  the  whites  ;  he  is  excluded 
from  commerce,  for  he  cannot  set  his  foot  on  'Change  nor 
in  the  banking  rooms.  Everywhere  and  always,  he  is 
eminently  unclean.  Thus  treated  as  vile,  he  almost 
always  becomes  so. 

In  Europe,  blacks  or  coloured  persons  have  sometimes 
filled  high  stations  ;  there  is  not  an  instance  of  the  kind 
in  the  United  States.  The  republic  of  Hayti  has  its 
accredited  representatives  at  the  court  of  France  ;  it  has 
none  in  Washington.  An  anecdote  was  told  me  at  New 
York  of  the  disappointment  of  a  young  Haytian,  who  was 
a  near  relation  of  one  of  Boyer's  ministers,  and  who  had 
received  a  good  education  in  France  ;  having  arrived  in 
New  York,  he  could  not  get  admittance  into  any  hotel, 
his  money  was  refused  at  the  door  of  the  theatre,  he  was 
ordered  out  of  the  cabin  of  a  steamboat,  and  was  obliged 
to  quit  the  country  without  being  able  to  speak  to  any 
body.  At  Philadelphia,  I  heard  of  a  man  of  colour  who 
had  acquired  wealth,  a  rare  thing  among  that  class,  who 
used  sometimes  to  invite  whites  to  dine  with  him,  and 
who  did  not  sit  at  table,  but  waited  upon  his  guests 
himself.  At  the  dessert,  however,  upon  their  pressing 
him  to  be  seated  with  them,  he  would  yield  to  their 
urgency.  At  the  end  of  1833,  in  one  of  the  New  Eng- 
gland  States,  and  I  think  it  was  in  Massachusetts,*  a  man 

"  In  Massachusetts  and  most  of  New  England  the  blacks  are  legally 
citizens,  and,  as  such,  have  the  right  of  voting ;  they  do  not,  however, 
at  present  exercise  this  right,  either  because  they  are  prevented  from  doing 
so,  or  because  their  names  are  designedly  omitted  on  the  list  of  tax-payers, 

46 


362  LETTER  XXVIII. 

of  colour  being  on  board  a  steamer  with  liis  wife,  wished 
to  get  her  admitted  into  the  ladies'  cabin  ;  the  captain 
refused  her  admission.  A  suit  was,  therefore,  brought 
against  the  captain,  by  the  man,  who  was  desirous  of 
having  it  decided  by  the  courts,  whether  free  people  of 
colour,  conducting  themselves  with  propriety,  could  enjoy 
the  same  privileges  with  whites  in  a  State,  in  which  they 
were  recognised  as  citizens  by  the  laws.  He  gained  his 
cause  on  the  first  hearing,  but  was  cast  on  appeal. 

The  diiferent  nations  of  the  .great  Christian  family,  after 
having  for  ages  received  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  suc- 
cessors of  St.  Peter,  have  selected  out  of  the  Christian 
scheme,  some  one  principle  most  congenial  to  their  nature, 
and  made  it  the  basis  of  their  character.  The  French,  a 
most, Christian  people,  have  chosen  the  principle  of  uni- 
versal charity.  In  our  .eyes,  there  .are  no  longer  Gentiles  ; 
our  prepossessions  in  favour  of  foreigners  increase  as  the 
square  of  the  distance  that  separates  their  country  from 
ours.  The  Spanish,  a  chivalric  people,  have  adopted  with 
enthusiasm  the  adoration  of  the  Virgin,  which  is  of  a 
more  modern  origin.  The  Protestants  have  taken  up  the 
principle  of  individual  conscience,  and  this  is  nearly  all  that 
they  have  accepted  from  Christianity  ;  they  have  renounced 
the  successive  additions  of  the  church  to  the  faith  of  the 
Apostles,  and  they  have  even  rejected  a  part  of  what 
Christ  himself  had  engrafted  on  the  Jewish  theology. 

which  in  some  States  forms  the  list  of  vuters.  [Blacks  vote  and  always  have 
voted  in  Massachusetts. — TRANSL.]  The  constitution  of  Connecticut, 
formed  in  1818,  excludes  them  from  this  franchise.  In  New  York,  real 
estate  of  the  value  of  250  dollars,  and  the  payment  of  taxes  is  made 
the  electoral  qualification  of  blacks.  [The  new  constitution  of  Pennsylvania, 
formed  in  1838,  restricts  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  whites,  although  it  was 
extended  to  blacks  by  the  old  constitution. — TRANSL.]  The  Western 
States,  in  which  slavery  does  not  exist,  do  not  admit  blacks  to  vote,  and  in 
the  slave-holding  States,  it  may  readily  be  imagined  that  they  do  not  enjoy 
that  privilege. 


SOCIAL  KEFORM.  363 

Among  Protestants,  the  Yankees  have  carried  this  retro- 
grade tendency  to  the  greatest  extreme  ;  they  have,  except 
in  some  few  points,  relapsed  into  Judaism,  and  returned  to 
to  the  Mosaic  law.  They  appeal  in  preference  to  the 
maxims  and  doctrines  of  the  Old  Testament ;  they, borrow 
their  names  from  it,  and  amongst  the  peculiarities  that 
strike  a  Frenchmen  in  New  England,  one  of  the  strongest 
is  the  great  prevalence  of  Hebrew  names,  such  as  Phineas, 
Ebenezer,  Judah,  Hiram,  Obadiah,  Ezra,  &c.,  on  the  signs 
and  in  advertisements. 

As  the  religion  of  the  people  exercises  a  controlling  in- 
fluence over  the  general  tone  of  its  feeling  and  character, 
the  Yankees,  having  thus  fallen  back  into  Judaism,  possess, 
like  the  Jews,  that  exclusive  spirit  which  was  already  in- 
herent in  their  insular  origin.  The  fact  is,  that  their 
religious  notions  square  exactly  with  this  depression  of  the 
blacks.  The  blacks  seem  to  them  inferior  beings ;  they 
revolt  against  the  thought  of  any  assimilation  with  them, 
even  in  the  slightest  degree  ;  a  mixture  of  the  two  races, 
°r,  as  they  call  it,  amalgamation,  is  in  their  eyes  an  abom- 
ination, a  sacrilege,  which  would  deserve  to  be  punished, 
as  the  sin  of  the  Hebrews  with  the  daughters  of  Moab  was 
punished.  The  emancipation  of  the  negro  comprises  two 
things  ;  the  one,  formal,  that  is  manumission  by  the  mas- 
ter, which  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  effect,  if  a  sufficient 
indemnity  were  offered  to  the  planters  and  the  country 
could  pay  it ;  and  the  other,  moral,  that  is,  a  real  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  rights  of  the  black,  by  admitting  him  to 
the  personal  privileges  of  the  white  man,  which  would 
meet  with  insurmountable  obstacles  at  the  North  as  well 
as  the  South,  and  would,  perhaps,  be  even  more  repugnant 
to  the  former  than  to  the  latter. 

The  principal  difficulty  of  emancipation,  so  far  as  re- 
gards the  slave  himself,  is  also  of  a  moral  character.  To 
render  him  fit  for  the  enjoyment  of  liberty,  it  is  necessary 


364  LETTER  XXVIII. 

that  he  should  be  initiated  in  the  duties  and  dignity  of 
man,  that  he  should  labour  in  order  to  pay  his  tax  to  soci- 
ety, and  maintain  his  family  with  decency,  that  he  should 
learn  to  obey  other  motives  than  the  fear  of  the  lash. 
He  must  learn  the  sentiment  of  self-respect ;  he  must  wish 
and  know  how  to  be  a  father,  son,  husband.  He  only  can 
have  a  perfect  right  to  liberty,  who  is  in  a  condition  to 
enjoy  it  with  profit  to  himself  and  to  society.  Slavery, 
odious  as  it  is,  is  one  form  of  social  order,  and  should  be 
preserved  where  no  better  form  can  be  substituted  for  it, 
as  it  must  disappear  where  the  inferior  is  ripe  for  a  better 
state  of  things. 

In  regard  to  the  lower  orders  in  Europe,  the  difficulty  is 
of  the  same  kind  with  that  which  stands  in  the  way  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  American  slaves  ;  it  is  only  different 
in  degree,  and  it  is  already  half  overcome.  In  order  that  the 
hireling  should  be  raised  from  his  present  abject  state,  the 
higher"  classes  must  be  ready  to  treat  him  as  a  being  of  the 
same  nature  with  themselves,  arid  he  himself  must  have 
acquired  higher  sentiments  than  such  as  belong  to  his 
present  condition.  He  must  not  only  be  inspired  with  the 
desire  of  being  happier,  but  also  with  the  ambition  of  being 
better.  To  establish  new  relations  between  the  different 
classes,  both  parties  must  labour  with  that  firm  will,  which 
recasts  ideas  and  habits.  The  question  of  the  improve- 
ment of  the  condition  of  the  lower  classes  is  essentially  a 
moral  question.  A  moral  remodelling  of  society  is  the 
necessary  preliminary.  Now,  whoever  pronounces  the 
world  moral  in  the  wider  sense  of  the  term,  means  religion. 
Philanthropy  and  philosophy  have  no  hold  on  the  moral 
nature  of  man,  unless  they  borrow  it  from  religion.  Re- 
ligion only  can  move  the  hearts  of  all  classes  deep  enough, 
and  enlighten  the  minds  of  all  strongly  enough,  to  cause 
the  rich  and  the  poor  to  conceive  new  ideas  of  their  mutu- 
al relations,  and  to  realize  them  in  practice. 


SOCIAL  REFORM.  365 

History  teaches  us,  that  civilisation,  in  its  successive 
phases,  has  gradually  improved  the  condition  of  the  low- 
er classes  ;  it  proves  also  that  each  of  the  great  changes 
that  have  taken  place  in  the  condition  of  the  multitude, 
has  been  consummated  or  prepared  by  religion,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  change  in  religion  itself.  It  was  religion  that 
struck  off  the  fetters  of  the  slave,  that  gradually  freed 
the  serf  from  the  glebe.  The  free  principles  of  the  French 
revolution  were  only  the  precepts  of  the  Christian  religion 
practised  by  persons  who  were  no  longer  Christians,  and 
the  revolutionary  actors  themselves  gave  to  Christ  the  title 
of  sans-culotte,  in  their  eyes  a  title  of  honour. 

To  render  the  efforts  of  the  higher  classes  in  favour  of  the 
people  vigourous  and  sustained,  they  must,  then,  be  direct- 
ed by  religion.  To  raise  the  lower  orders  effectually  from 
their  abasement,  religion  must  fix  them  steadily  on  that 
high  moral  level,  to  which  they  have  occasionally  soared 
by  sublime,  but  fitful  and  soon  drooping  flights.  Now,  the 
higher  classes  have  not  faith.  If  among  the  highest,  the 
irreligious  philosophy  of  the  18th  century  has  of  late  lost 
adherents,  it  restores  and  increases  its  numbers  from  among 
the  lower  ranks.  Incredulity  has  lowered  its  aim  a  peg  ; 
its  train  has  lost  in  quality,  but  gained  in  quantity.  Irre- 
ligion  is  at  work  among  the  populace  of  the  cities,  disposes 
them  to  revolt,  and  would  make  them  unfit  for  the  regular 
enjoyment  of  liberty.  When  we  have  roads,  when  schools 
have  taught  the  whole  population  to  read,  which  will  be 
soon,  you  will  see  irreligion  infecting  the  country  people, 
if  you  do  not  provide  against  its  approaches  beforehand. 

Christianity,  or  at  least  Catholicism,  seems  to  be  on  the 
eve  of  suffering  a  general  desertion  amongst  us.  And  yet 
how  far  are  we  from  having  drawn  from  the  Christian 
principles,  which  some  among  us  affect  to  consider  as  ex- 
hausted, all  the  elements  of  popular  liberty  and  happiness 
which  they  contain  !  We  are  a  most  Christian  people  in 


366  LETTER  XXVIII. 

this  sense,  that  we  believe  in  the  unity  of  the  whole 
human  family,  and  we  prove  it  by  our  good  will  to  all 
nations ;  but  it  seems  as  if  we  expend  abroad  all  the  heat 
that  Christianity  has  developed  in  our  souls.  We,  the 
apostles  of  the  brotherhood  of  nations,  we  have  not  yet 
breathed  into  our  relations  to  each  other  the  principle  of 
the  fraternity  of  men.  We  of  the  middle  class,  the  sons  of 
freedmen.  think  that  labourers,  the  sons  of  slaves,  are  of  a 
different  nature  from  ourselves.  We  have  still  a  remnant 
of  the  old  pagan  leaven  at  the  bottom  of  our  hearts.  We 
do  not,  indeed,  with  Aristotle,  teach  the  doctrine  of  two 
distinct  natures,  the  free  nature  and  the  slave  nature,  but 
we  act  in  practice  as  if  we  were  brought  up  in  that  faith. 
We  are  not  yet  become  the  fathers  and  elder  brothers  of 
the  peasant  and  the  operative  ;  but  in  our  relations  to  them, 
we  are  still  their  masters,  and  hard  masters  too. 

And  unfortunately,  whilst  society,  driven  about  by  the 
waves,  at  the  mercy  of  chance  and  without  a  compass,  is 
exposed  to  disasters,  which  the  control  of  religion  alone 
can  prevent,  religion  makes  no  effort  to  resume  the  helm 
and  recover  her  authority.  In  the  midst  of  nations  which 
are  rushing  onward  at  every  risk,  Catholicism  stands  still, 
silently  shrouded  in  her  mantle,  with. her  arms  folded,  and 
her  eyes  bent  on  heaven.  The  Church  bore  all  the  shocks 
of  the  revolutionary  storm  with  a  heroic  resignation  ;  she 
meekly  submitted  to  be  scourged  with  rods,  like  the  Just 
One ;  like  him  she  has  been  fixed  to  the  cross,  and  has 
opened  her  mouth  only  to  pray  for  her  executioners.  But 
the  sufferings  of  the  Just  have  saved  sinners  and  changed 
the  face  of  the  world  ;  nothing  betokens  that  the  recent 
sufferings  of  the  Catholic  church  will  have  any  saving 
power.  From  the  tomb  where  it  was  laid  for  dead,  we 
see  it  bring  back  no  scheme  for  the  restoration  of  suffering, 
longing  humanity. 

The  Roman  Church  is  yet  what  it  was  four  hundred 


SOCIAL  REFORM.  367 

years  ago  ;  but  within  that  period  the  world  has  become 
quite  another  thing ;  it  has  made  great  progress,  and  freed 
itself  from  the  meshes  of  the  past,  with  the  firm  purpose 
not  to  be  again  involved  in  them.  If  civilisation,  then,  is 
about  to  assume  a  new  form,  as  every  thing  forebodes,  re- 
ligion, which  is  at  once  the  beginning  and  end  of  society, 
the  key-stone  and  the  corner-stone,  religion,  must  also  re- 
cast herself.  Would  it  be  the  first  time  that  Christianity 
has  modified  her  forms  and  rules,  to  adapt  herself  to  the 
instincts  and  the  tendencies  of  the  nations  she  has  sought 
to  bless? 

In  this  country,  religion  has  wrought  the  elevation  of  the 
lower  classes.  Puritanism  has  been  the  starting  point  of 
the  democratic  movement.  The  Puritans  came  to  Amer- 
ica, not  in  quest  of  gold,  nor  to  conquer  provinces,  but  to 
found  a  church  on  the  principle  of  primitive  equality. 
They  were  as  I  have  before  said,  new  Jews ;  they  wished 
to  govern  by  the  laws  of  Moses.  In  the  beginning  the 
state  was  completely  swallowed  up  by  the  church  ;  they 
divided  themselves  into  religious  congregations,  in  which 
all  the  heads  of  families  were  equal,  conformably  to  the 
Mosaic  law,  over  which  the  elders  and  the  saints  presided, 
and  in.  which  all  earthly  distinctions  were  abolished  or 
contemned.  One  of  the  first  objects  of  their  care,  under 
the -influence  of  their  religious  views,  was  to  establish 
schools,  in  which  all  the  children  should  be  educated  to- 
gether and  in  the  same  manner.  Although  unequal  in 
respect  to  property,  all  adopted  the  same  habits  of  life. 
The  physical  exertions,  to  which  all  were  obliged  to 
devote  themselves  in  common,  in  order  to  defend 
themselves  from  famine  and  the  savages,  strengthen- 
ed their  habits  and  feelings  of  equality.  Now,  New 
England,  which  is  inhabited  exclusively  by  the  sons  of 
the  Puritans,  and  in  which  their  traditions  and  their  faith 


368  LETTER  XXVIII. 

are  still  kept  unchanged,  has  ever  been,  and  is  yet,  the 
focus  of  American  democracy. 

Thus  American  democracy  has  been  enabled  to  organise 
and  establish  itself.  All  our  efforts,  on  the  contrary,  to  found 
a  democracy  in  France  in  1793,  would  have  been  vain, 
even  had  we  not  been  unfitted  for  democratic  habits,  be- 
cause we  wished  to  build  on  irreligion,  on  the  hatred  of 
religion.  Manners  and  feelings  must  prepare  and  inspire 
the  means  of  social  improvement ;  the  laws  must  express 
and  prescribe  them.  Politics  and  religion,  then,  must 
join  hands  in  this  difficult  task.  Politics,  as  well  as  reli- 
gion, must  be  transformed  for  the  furtherance  of  civilisa- 
tion, and  the  safety  of  the  world. 

I  admire  the  results,  which  the  political  system  of  the 
United  States  has  produced  in  America.  But  it  seems  to 
me  impossible,  that  the  institutions  by  which  the  condition 
of  the  people  has  been  so  much  bettered  here,  can  be 
naturalised  amongst  us.  There  must  be  harmony  between 
the  political  and  religious  schemes  that  are  suited  to 
any  one  people.  Protestantism  is  republican  ;  puritanism 
is  absolute  self-government  in  religion,  and  begets  it  in 
politics.  The  United  Provinces  were  Protestant;  the 
United  States  are  Protestant.  Catholicism  is  essentially 
monarchical  ;  in  countries,  which  are  Catholic,  at  least  by 
recollections,  habits,  and  education,  if  not  by  faith,  a  regu- 
lar democracy  is  impracticable.  The  anarchy  of  the  for- 
mer Spanish  colonies  fully  proves  to  what  bitter  regrets 
Catholic  nations  expose  themselves,  when  they  attempt  to 
apply  to  themselves  the  political  institutions  of  Protestant 
countries. 

Under  the  influence  of  Protestantism  and  republicanism, 
the  social  progress  has  been  effected  by  the  medium  of  the 
spirit  of  individuality ;  for  protestantism,  republicanism, 
and  individuality  are  all  one.  Individuals  stand  apart 
from  one  another,  or  if  they  are  associated  together,  they 


SOCIAL  REFORM.  369 

have  formed  only  limited  associations,  which  have  no 
common  bond  of  union.  The  republic  of  the  United 
States  is  indefinitely  subdivided  into  independent  repub- 
lics of  various  classes.  The  States  are  republics  in  the 
general  confederation  ;  the  towns  are  republics  within  the 
States  ;  a  farm  is  a  republic  in  a  county.  Banking,  canal, 
and  railroad  companies,  are  so  many  distinct  republics.  The 
family  is  an  inviolable  republic  in  the  state  ;  each  indivi- 
dual is  a  republic  by  himself  in  the  family.  The  only 
effective  militia  consists  of  volunteer  companies,  which 
have  no  connexion  with  each  other.  The  religious  organ- 
isation of  the  country  resembles  its  civil  and  political 
organisation.  The  different  sects  are  independent  of  each 
other,  and  most  of  them  tend  to  split  up  into  completely 
detached  fragments. 

Our  national  genius,  on  the  contrary,  requires  that  in 
France  we  should  act  chiefly  under  the  influence  of  asso- 
ciation and  unity,  which  are  characteristic  traits  of  Catho- 
licism and  monarchy.  France  is  a  specimen  of  the  com- 
pletest  political  and  administrative  unity  that  there  is  in 
the  world.  Our  individual  existence  must  be  bound  up 
with  others  ;  we  love  independence,  but  we  do  not  feel 
that  we  live  unless  we  make  a  part  of  a  whole.  Solitude 
overpowers  us  ;  the  personality  of  the  Englishman  or  the 
American  can  sustain  itself  alone  ;  ours  must  be  linked  with 
that  of  others.  For  a  people  eminently  social,  like  the 
French,  how  is  it  possible  that  the  spirit  of  association 
should  not  be  the  best  ?  But  it  must  retain  the  distinction 
of  ranks  ;  for  with  us,  a  republican  association  would 
degenerate  into  anarchy. 

If,  then,  I  should  attempt  to  define  the  conditions  most 
favourable  to  the  improvement  of  society  in  France,  I  should 
say  that  they  require  it  to  be  undertaken  under  the  influences 
of  religion  ;  that  its  accomplishment  should  be  confided  to 
the  constituted  authorities,  central  and  local,  and  particu- 
47 


370  LETTER  XXIX. 

larly  to  royalty  ;  that  it  should  be  effected  by  means  of 
institutions  bearing  the  double  impress  of  unity  and  hier- 
chical  association,  arid  reposing  immediately  on  the  general 
association,  which  is  the  state,  or  supported  by  powerful 
intermediary  associations,  which  should  be  themselves 
attached  to  the  state.  The  nearer  we  approach  these  con- 
ditions, the  more  complete  will  be  our  success,  the  sooner 
shall  we  have  the  happiness  of  seeing  our  beloved  France, 
prosperous  within,  recover  the  high  station  which  she 
ought  to  occupy  in  the  world. 


LETTER   XXIX. 

THE    EMPIRE    STATE. 

ALBANY,  SEPTEMBER  11,  1835. 

IT  has  been  already  shown  (Letter  X.),  that  there  are 
in  the  United  States  two  strongly  marked  types,  the  Yan- 
kee and  the  Virginian,  the  mutual  action  and  reaction  of 
which  have  hitherto  been  the  life  of  the  Union.  A  third  is 
rising  in  the  West,  which  seems  destined  to  become  the 
bond  and  umpire  of  the  two  others,  if  it  is  able  to  preserve 
its  own  unity  ;  which  will  not,  however,  be  easy,  for  the 
West  comprises  slave -holding  and  non-slave-holding  States. 
For  the  present,  this  high  office  is  filled  by  the  Middle 
States,  or  rather  by  New  York,  which  is  the  most  import- 
ant State  not  only  of  this  group,  but  of  the  whole  Union. 
To  be  a  mediator  between  two  types,  it  is  necessary  to 
unite  in  one  person  the  principal  qualities  of  both  ;  the 
State  of  New  York,  then,  should  combine  the  large  views 


THE  EMPIRE  STATE.  371 

of  the  South  with  the  spirit  of  detail  that  marks  the 
North.  To  be,  even  imperfectly,  the  personification  of  the 
principle  of  unity  in  the  great  American  confederation,  it 
is  indispensable  that  the  claimant  of  that  honour  should 
possess  in  a  high  degree  the  spirit  of  unity.  To  achieve 
the  work  of  centralisation  or  consolidation  in  America,  even 
partially,  demands  a  high  degree  of  the  genius  of  centrali- 
sation. For  some  time  there  has  appeared  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  State  of  New  York,  a  character  of  grandeur, 
unity,  and  centralisation,  that  has  procured  it  the  title  of 
the  Empire-State.  Although  it  is  the  nearest  neighbour 
of  the  New  England  States,  and  actually  borders  upon 
three  of  them,  although  a  large  number  of  its  inhabitants 
are  of  New  England  origin,  it  has  succeeded  in  freeing 
itself  from  the  spirit  of  extreme  division  that  is  characteris- 
tic of  the  Yankees,  or  rather  in  counterbalancing  it  by  a 
proportional  development  of  the  spirit  of  unity. 

The  Opposition,  which  is  in  the  minority  in  the  legisla- 
ture in  the  State,  and  does  not,  therefore,  feel  in  good  hu- 
mour, endeavours  to  create  among  the  people  a  dislike  to  this 
control  of  the  central  power.  "  You  are  led,"  it  says,  "  by 
the  Albany  Regency  ;  a  half-dozen  of  the  friends  of  Mr 
Mr  Van-Buren,  taking  their  cue  from  Governor  Marcy; 
make  you  their  puppets."  The  Opposition  exaggerates  ; 
but  it  is  certain,  that  the  organisation  of  the  State,  and  the 
forms  of  administration,  which  have  been  established  of 
late  years  under  the  influence  of  Mr  Van  Buren,  and  which 
form  a  precedent  for  the  future,  bear  the  impress  of  a  cen- 
tralism, at  which  the  friends  of  unlimited  individual  inde- 
pendence have  a  right  to  take  alarm,  but  which  wise  men 
must  applaud  ;  for  it  is  by  means  of  it  that  the  State  of 
New  York  is  become  superiour  to  the  others,  and  it  is  by  it 
alone  that  it  can  maintain  its  superiority.  This  combination 
of  expansive  force,  which  prevails  every  where  else  in  the 
American  confederacy,  with  a  sufficient  cohesive  power,  has 


372  LETTER  XXIX. 

given  to  the  constitution  of  New  York  an  elasticity,  which, 
for  communities  as  well  as  for  individuals,  is  the  condition 
of  a  long  and  prosperous  existence. 

The  organisation  of  the  public  schools  and  of  public 
instruction  in  general  is  centralised.  Most  of  the  States 
have  a  school-fund,  the  income  of  which  in  New  England 
is  distributed  among  the  towns,  who  dispose  of  it  accord- 
ing to  their  own  good  pleasure,  without  the  State  having 
the  right  to  exercise  any  real  control  over  it,  or  imposing 
any  conditions  in  regard  to  it.  New  York  proceeds  more 
imperially  ;  it  obliges  the  different  towns  to  raise  a  sum 
equal  to  that  to  which  they  are  entitled  from  the  State, 
under  penalty  of  not  receiving  their  share  of  the  State 
fund.  This  method  is  preferable  to  that  followed  in  Con- 
necticut, which  distributes  annually  among  the  towns 
about  the  same  sum  as  New  York,  but  exacts  no  account 
of  the  manner  in  which  it  has  been  employed,  and  cannot 
even  be  sure  that  it  has  been  actually  devoted  to  the  pur- 
pose of  instruction. 

In  1834,  the  public  schools  in  New  York  were  attended 
by  541,400  pupils  ;  now  the  number  of  children  between 
five  and  sixteen  years  of  age  in  the  districts  from  which 
returns  were  received,  comprising  very  nearly  the  whole 
State,  was  only  543,085.  The  whole  expenditure  for 
schools  was  1,310,000  dollars,  of  which  750,000  dollars 
was  for  pay  of  teachers.  The  amount  expended  in  France 
for  the  same  object  is  only  three  times  as  great  as  that 
expended  by  New  York,  which  has  one  sixteenth  of  the 
population  of  France.  The  number  of  children  in  our 
schools  is  2,450,000,  or  one  thirteenth  of  the  population, 
which  is  only  one  third  of  the  proportion  in  New  York. 

All  the  common  schools  in  New  York  are  under  the 
supervision  and  control  of  a  board  of  commissioners,  mostly 
composed  of  several  of  the  chief  officers  of  the  government, 
and  of  which  the  Secretary  of  State  is  the  most  active 


THE  EMPIRE  STATE.  373 

member.  The  commissioners  make  provision  for  the  in- 
struction of  teachers,  require  an  account  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  school,  and  select  the  text  books.  Virginia, 
Ohio,  and  some  other  States  have  adopted  a  similar  system 
in  this  respect ;  but  New  York  has  this  peculiarity,  that  it 
has  also  a  board,  styled  the  board  of  Regents  of  the  Uni- 
versity, who  are  appointed  by  the  legislature,  and  have  the 
control  of  the  higher  schools  called  academies.  There  are 
seven  colleges  in  the  State,  one  of  which  is  styled  the  Uni- 
versity of  New  York,  and  corresponds,  very  remotely  it  is 
true,  to  the  English  and  German  Universities. 

The  control  of  the  government  over  the  academies  is  at 
present  very  limited  ;  it  is  little  more  than  an  annual  visit 
by  one  or  more  of  the  Regents  of  the  University,  but  it  can 
easily  be  extended,  whenever  the  State  shall  think  proper, 
by  means  of  the  system  of  pecuniary  aid ;  in  1834,  the 
sum  distributed  among  these  seminaries  was  12,500  dollars. 
The  number  of  pupils  in  the  Academies  was  a  little  more 
than  5,000,  or  two  and  a  half  pupils  out  of  each  thousand 
souls.  In  France,  there  were  80,000  pupils  in  the  colle- 
ges, which  is  the  same  ratio  to  the  whole  population. 
It  would  appear  from  this  comparison,  that  in  the  United 
States,  where  the  advantages  of  elementary  instruction  are 
universally  realised,  the  desire  for  a  higher  degree  of  in- 
struction is  less  general  than  with  us,  for  the  number  of 
families  that  can  afford  to  pay  is  proportion  ably  much 
greater  in  the  United  States  than  in  France.  Thus  in 
regard  to  a  higher  education,  we  recover,  in  some  measure, 
the  superiority,  which  the  Americans,  at  least  in  New 
York,  have  over  us  in  respect  to  elementary  education. 

The  same  spirit  of  unity  and  centralisation  has  dictated 
a  general  regulation  of  a  singular  character  in  respect  to 
the  banks,  which  may  prove  to  be  of  great  value  in  prac- 
tice, and  to  which  there  is  nothing  similar,  either  in  the 
other  States,  or  in  any  other  country.  The  Safety-Fund- 


374  LETTER  XXIX. 

Act  establishes  a  bank  fund  appropriated  to  making  good 
any  losses  incurred  by  the  failure  of  any  of  the  banks. 
Each  bank  is  required  to  pay  annually  to  the  State  treasu- 
rer, a  sum  equal  to  one  half  of  one  per  cent,  on  its  capi- 
tal, until  it  shall  have  so  paid  in  the  sum  of  three  per 
cent,  on  the  capital  stock.  Whenever  the  bank  fund  is 
reduced  by  paying  the  debts  of  an  insolvent  bank,  it  must 
be  restored  to  the  proper  amount  by  the  same  process. 
The  banks,  together  with  the  fund,  are  under  the  supervi- 
sion of  three  Commissioners,  one  of  whom  is  appointed 
by  the  Governor,  and  the  two  others  by  the  banks.  The 
Commissioners  visit  each  bank  at  least  once  in  four  months, 
examine  into  its  operations,  and  satisfy  themselves  that  it 
has  conformed  itself  to  the  provisions  of  its  charter. 
They  are  beside  required  to  make  a  particular  examina- 
tion of  any  bank  on  the  demand  of  three  other  banks,  and 
in  case  of  detecting  any  violation  of  the  charter,  to  apply 
to  the  court  of  chancery  for  an  injunction  against  it. 

This  law  contains  several  sections  designed  to  aid  the 
Commissioners  in  the  execution  of  their  duties,  and  to 
prevent  their  being  imposed  on  by  the  banks ;  it  gives 
them  the  right  to  inspect  the  books,  and  to  examine  the 
officers  of  the  bank  under  oath.  The  salary  of  the  Com- 
missioners is  2,000  dollars,  which  is  paid  out  of  the  bank 
fund.  Any  bank  director  or  officer  who  shall  make  false 
returns  to  the  legislature,  or  false  entries  in  the  books,  or 
exhibit  false  papers  with  intent  to  deceive  the  Commis- 
sioners, is  subject  to  imprisonment  for  not  less  than  three 
nor  more  than  ten  years.  Every  bank  subject  to  this  act 
may  receive  legal  interest  on  loan  and  discounts ;  but  on 
notes  which  shall  be  mature  in  sixtythree  days  from  the 
time  of  discount,  it  shall  receive  only  six  per  cent,  per 
annum.  It  is  further  provided  that  the  issues  or  circula- 
tion of  any  bank  shall  not  exceed  twice  its  capital  stock  T 
and  that  its  loans  and  discounts  shall  never  exceed  twice 


THE  EMPIRE  STATE.  375 

and  a  half  that  amount ;  but  this  provision  has  not  hither- 
to been  rigidly  observed. 

The  number  of  banks  in  the  State  is  eightyseven.  of 
which  only  seventyseven  are  subject  to  the  provisions  of 
the  Safety-Fund-Act,  the  others  having  been  established 
before  the  date  of  the  act.  But  as  all  will  be  obliged  to 
renew  their  charters  within  ten  years,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Manhattan  bank  alone,  which  has  a  perpetual  char- 
ter, they  will  all,  with  one  exception,  be  brought  under 
the  act.  The  aggregate  of  the  bank  capital  in  the  State 
is  31,280,000  dollars ;  the  bank  fund  amounts  to  above 
538,000  dollars.  The  annual  amount  of  the  loans  and 
discounts  of  the  banks  is  estimated  at  about  300  millions, 
exclusive  of  the  operations  of  the  three  branches  of  the 
United  States  Bank  ;  that  of  the  banks  of  the  city  of 
New  York  alone,  is  about  180  million,  or  twice  as  much 
as  that  of  the  Bank  of  France. 

Nothing,  however,  has  contributed  so  much  to  give 
New  York  its  imperial  reputation,  as  the  energy  it  has 
displayed  in  canalling  its  territory.  All  the  resources  of 
the  State  were  devoted  to  this  object ;  all  the  energies  of 
its  citizens  were  bent  for  eight  years  on  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  great  work.  In  spite  of  the  worst  predictions 
and  earnest  remonstrances  of  some  of  the  most  respected 
men  in  the  Union,  the  confidence  of  this  young  State 
never  faltered  for  a  moment.  Complete  success  attended 
its  efforts  ;  the  great  canal,  begun  in  1817,  was  finished 
in  1825.  The  State  has  since  executed  a  great  number 
of  canals,  at  an  expense  of  above  twelve  millions,  the 
greater  part  of  which  has  been  raised  by  loan.  Several 
others  are  still  in  progress. 

The  Erie  canal,  the  most  important  of  these  works,  is 
simple  in  construction,  not  very  deep  nor  very  wide. 
But  if  it  is  not  peculiarly  interesting  as  an  object  of  art. 
it  is  an  object  of  admiration  considered  as  a  great  com- 


376  LETTER  XXIX. 

mercial  artery.  From  our  canals,  which  are  navigated  by 
heavy  and  clumsy  boats  slowly  and  painfully  dragged 
forward  by  a  man,  you  can  get  no  idea  of  this  great  chan- 
nel, with  its  fleet  of  light,  elegant,  covered  barks  gliding 
along  at  a  rapid  rate,  and  drawn  by  a  powerful  team. 
Every  minute  boats  are  passing  each  other,  and  the  boat- 
man's horn  warns  the  lock-master  to  be  in  readiness. 
Each  moment  the  landscape  varies ;  now  you  pass  a 
river  by  an  aqueduct,  now  you  traverse  large  new  towns, 
fine  as  capitals,  with  all  their  houses  having  pillared  por- 
ticos and  looking  externally  like  little  palaces  ;  it  is  an 
admirable  spectacle  of  life  and  variety.  The  amount  of 
property  annually  transported  on  the  Erie  Canal  is  430,000 
tons,  on  the  Champlain  canal,  307,000  tons,  at  very  mode- 
rate rates  of  toll.  The  annual  amount  of  tolls  is  1,500,000 
dollars ;  that  on  the  French  canals  and  rivers  is  only 
900,000  dollars. 

In  1817,  when  it  began  the  great  canal,  the  State  of 
New  York  contained  1,250,000  inhabitants,  scattered  over 
a  surface  about  one  fourth  as  large  as  France.  Whilst  in 
Europe,  grave  publicists  were  discussing  the  question, 
whether  a  State  should  undertake  the  execution  of  public 
works,  and  the  most  powerful  governments  were  listening 
scrupulously  to  the  debate,  in  order  to  determine  whether 
they  had  the  right  to  enrich  their  subjects  by  productive 
enterprises,  —  the  same  governments  who  never  doubted 
their  right  to  waste  millions  of  men  and  treasure  in  devas- 
tating Europe, — the  modest  authorities  of  this  miniature 
empire  solved  the  question,  without  dreaming  that  it  could 
embarrass  great  potentates  in  other  quarters.  The  State 
of  New  York  undertook  the  execution  of  public  works,  and 
has  found  its  advantage  in  them ;  after  having  executed 
them,  it  has  managed  them  itself  on  its  own  account,  and 
found  even  greater  advantages  in  this.  The  income  from 
the  canals,  with  the  aid  of  some  slight  additions,  has  been. 


THE  EMPIRE  STATE.  377 

sufficient  to  sink  nearly  half  the  debt  contracted  in  their  con- 
struction. Thus  the  brilliant  success  of  the  Erie  canal,  be- 
came the  signal  for  the  greatest  undertakings  of  a  similar 
character  by  the  other  States.  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  and  Indiana  have  followed  the  example  of 
New  York,  and  have  undertaken  to  open  routes  of  commu- 
nication of  every  kind,  through  their  territories,  at  their 
own  expense,  even  at  the  risk  of  incurring  the  reproaches  of 
the  timid  economists  of  Europe. 

New  York  has  carried  her  interference  in  public  works 
still  further ;  in  all  the  charters  for  railroad  companies,  the 
State  reserves  to  itself  the  right  of  acquiring  the  property 
of  the  railroad,  after  the  expiration  of  ten  years,  and  on 
certain  conditions  named  in  the  act  of  incorporation,  which 
are  truly  liberal  on  the  part  of  the  State  ;  they  stipulate 
the  re-payment  of  the  first  cost  and  the  sums  expended  in 
repairs,  and  the  supply  of  any  deficiency  in  the  dividends 
below  ten  per  cent.* 

Thus  the  State  of  New  York,  in  its  imperial  humour, 
has  laid  hands  on  public  instruction,  banks,  and  the 
means  of  communication,  with  the  purpose  of  centralising 
them  ;  the  design  is  already  effected  in  respect  to  public 
works ;.  it  is  not  yet  fully  accomplished  in  jegard  to  the 
schools  and  the  banks ;  but  its  fulfilment  approaches  grad- 
ually and  surely.  As  I  have  already  said,  the  spirit  of 
centralisation  has  penetrated  more  deeply  into  the  admin- 
istration of  the  State,  than  into  the  acts  of  the  legislature  ; 
a  guarantee,  that  the  laws  of  unity  Avill  not  remain  paper 
rules. 

The  lessons  of  New  York  have  turned  to  the  profit  of 

*  Several  States  have  reserved  to  themselves  a  similar  right,  but  generally 
on  less  liberal  conditions.  Massachusetts,  however,  has  adopted  the  same, 
extending  the  term  of  possession  by  the  company  to  twenty  years.  New  Jer- 
sey has  stipulated  that  it  shall  have  the  right  of  acquiring  the  property  of 
several  works,  at  a  price  not  exceeding  their  first  cost. 

48 


378  LETTER  XXIX. 

its  neighbours ;  like  it,  they  also  begin  the  work  of  cen- 
tralisation, in  embracing  schools,  banks,  and  public  works 
within  the  action  of  the  State.  They  see,  by  its  example^ 
that  the  spirit  of  individual  enterprise  does  not  suffer,  when 
the  government  subjects  to  its  control  and  its  authority 
these  three  great  springs  of  national  prosperity,  and  even 
when  it  sets  them  in  action  on  its  own  account ;  for  no- 
where is  the  spirit  of  enterprise  more  vigourous  and  clear- 
sighted than  in  New  York.  In  spite  of  the  Safety-Fund- 
Act,  there  are  nowhere  more  numerous  applications  for  the 
incorporation  of  banking  companies.  Notwithstanding  the 
school  laws,  nowhere  do  institutions  of  education  increase 
more  rapidly.  Nowhere  are  there  more  railroads  in  pro- 
gress. The  State  contains  80  miles  of  canal  and  100  of 
railroads,  constructed  by  companies ;  from  150  to  200 
miles  of  railroad  are  now  in  process  of  construction,  and 
a  company  has  been  organised  for  constructing  a  railroad 
from  the  Hudson  to  Lake  Erie  through  the  southern  coun- 
ties, a  distance  of  350  miles. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  suppose  that  a  country  like 
France,  where  so  much  value  is  set  on  the  principles  of 
unity  and  centralisation,  would  be  less  courageous  than 
these  little  republics,  born  under  the  influence  of  the  indi- 
vidual principle,  and  that  we  should  any  longer  delay  to 
take  an  imperial  course  in  regard  to  institutions  of  credit, 
public  works,  and  industrial  education.  The  object  to  be 
accomplished  is  not  merely  to  increase  the  wealth  of  the 
country.  But  there  are  other  and  more  elevated  motives 
to  induce  modern  governments  to  take  part  in  such  institu- 
tions, and  thus  to  extend  their  control  over  the  interests 
and  operations  of  industry. 

The  progress  of  civilisation,  considered  with  reference 
to  the  individual,  consists  in  this  ;  that  each  becomes  more 
and  more  suited  to  bear  the  weight  of  his  individuality. 
Social  order,  being  thus  supplied  with  stronger  individual 


THE  EMPIRE  STATE.  379 

guarantees,  seems  to  require  less  and  less  of  legal  and  pub- 
lic ones  ;  but  in  this  matter,  there  is  an  important  distinc- 
tion to  be  kept  in  view.  Civilisation  gradually  strips  man 
of  the  grosser  habits  and  the  brutal  propensities  of  savage 
life.  There  are  many  prohibitions  and  commands  in  the 
Deuteronomy,  which  in  our  day  would  be  perfectly  super- 
fluous. Mankind  hardly  has  further  need  to  be  taught  : 
Thou  shalt  not  kill.  The  lictor  and  the  headsman  are 
losing  their  social  importance  ;  the  constable,  the  sheriff, 
and  the  gaoler  are,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  on  the  eve  of  taking 
their  places  every  where.  Public  order  has  begun,  and 
will  continue  more  and  more,  to  dispense  with  the  use  of 
the  sword ;  and  thus  individual  reason  substitutes  its  vol- 
untary sanction  for  the  imperative  sanction  of  political 
power  and  the  force  of  arms. 

The  human  understanding  is  expanded  and  enlightened 
by  cultivation  ;  the  heart  is  elevated  and  purified  ;  yet  the 
elementary  passions  are  the  same.  They  are  combined 
under  different  forms,  and  are  turned  to  different  objects  ; 
but  if  they  are  moderated,  it  is  only  in  outward  appearan- 
ces ;  if  they  are  polished,  it  is  only  on  the  surface  ;  within 
all  is  as  rough  and  fierce  as  ever.*  In  politics,  particu- 
larly, jealousy  and  ambition  exist  in  the  same  degree 
amongst  us  as  they  did  amongst  the  Greeks  and  Romans  ; 
they  no  longer  wield  the  dagger  or  administer  the  poison, 
they  do  not  even  employ  an  assassin  or  a  Locusta ;  but 
they  are  neither  less  unjust,  nor  less  insatiable,  nor  less 
bitter  than  in  ancient  times  ;  they  do  not  stab  the  body, 
but  they  wound  the  honour  ;  slander  takes  the  place  of  the 
stiletto,  and  serves  them  as  well  as  the  juices  of  venomous 
plants  ;  civilisation  furnishes  them  a  thousand  new  means 


*Mde.  de  Stael  exclaims;  "Strange  destiny  of  mankind,  condemned 
ever  to  retrace  the  same  circle  by  the  passions,  whilst  it  is  ever  advancing 
;n  the  career  of  thought .'" 


380  LETTER  XXIX. 

of  assuaging  their  thirst.  I  do  not  believe  that  Sylla  and 
Marius,  Caesar  and  Pompey,  hated  each  other  more  cordi- 
ally than  General  Jackson,  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  Mr  Biddle,  president  of  the  United  States'  Bank.  If 
one  were  to  search  out  the  types  of  Cain  and  Abel  among 
modern  statesmen,  the  list  would  be  of  frightful  length. 

To  that  force  of  dissolution,  which  increases  instead  of 
diminishing,  in  proportion  to  the  increasing  number  of  in- 
dividuals admitted  to  a  share  of  political  influence,  it  is 
necessary  to  oppose  cohesive  elements  of  equal  activity  and 
intensity.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  in  the  future,  as  well  as 
in  the  pasl,  the  existence  of  society  involves  that  of  religion. 
Even  did  not  religion  touch  the  tenderest  cords  and  stir  the 
liveliest  sensibilities  of  the  human  heart ;  if  it  did  not  offer 
to  the  imagination  a  vast  field  in  which  to  wander  in  safety  ; 
even  if  it  were  not  indispensable  to  peace  of  conscience 
and  to  domestic  tranquillity,  it  would  be  impossible  to  get 
along  without  it,  for  it  has  also  a  political  necessity.  It  has 
been  rightly  said,  that  if  there  were  no  God,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  feign  one. 

A  single  institution,  however,  would  not  suffice  to  regu- 
late and  govern  the  passions  at  all  times  and  in  all  places, 
unless  it  were  to  follow  men  in  all  their  movements,  control 
them  in  all  their  acts,  bind  them  hands  and  feet,  or,  in  a. 
word,  unless  it  were  despotic,  after  the  image  of  the  old 
theocracies.  It  is  not,  then,  to  be  hoped,  that,  in  our  free 
countries,  religion  alone  can  counterbalance  human  pas- 
sions and  confine  them  within  the  limits,  in  which  they 
subserve  the  progress  of  society ;  or  at  least,  if  it  can 
do  this  in  one  of  the  social  hemispheres,  the  family,  it 
will  always  be  insufficient  in  the  other,  the  state. 
For  this  reason,  the  Middle  Ages  established  a  salutary 
principle,  when  they  separated  the  temporal  power  from 
the  spiritual  authority,  and  gave  strength  and  indepen- 
dence to  each.  From  that  time,  all  efforts  to  confound 


THE  EMPIRE  STATE.  381 

these  two  powers,  or,  which  amounts  to  the  same  thing, 
to  dispense  with  one  of  them,  have  been  completely  un- 
successful ;  they  have  generally  resulted  in  establishing  a 
tyranny.* 

A  temporal  authority,  armed  with  ample  prerogatives, 
is,  then,  indispensable  at  the  present  day,  even  in  behalf  of 
liberty  itself.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  impossible  to  deny 
that  the  tendency  of  civilisation  is  to  strip  the  throne  of  its 
ancient  attributes,  either  in  whole  or  in  part.  On  this 
head,  our  age  has  taken  a  decided  stand.  The  resistance 
of  kings  to  the  efforts  of  those  who  have  assailed  the 
throne,  has  served  to  exasperate  the  latter  to  such  a  pitch, 
that  a  party,  —  that  of  the  republicans,  —  has  been  formed, 
the  sole  object  of  which  is  the  complete  and  radical  aboli- 
tion of  monarchy,  and  the  singular  doctrine  of  the  inutility 
and  even  the  danger  of  all  power  has  found  numerous  and 
warm  adherents. 

The  people  are  right  to  desire  the  kings  to  lay  down  or 
to  curtail  their  old  prerogatives ;  the  governments,  that  are 
the  heirs  of  conquest,  ought  to  abdicate  whatever  there  is 
of  violence  and  brutality  in  their  authority.  It  would  be 
premature  to  assert  that  universal  peace  is  about  to  dawn 


*  I  have  already  said,  that  when  the  Puritans  landed  in  New  England 
they  wished  above  all  things  to  found  a  religious  society.  They  organised 
themselves  by  the  laws  of  Moses.  Political  society  did  not  exist  in  fact, 
although  there  was  a  nominal  governor  to  represent  the  temporal  authority, 
or  was  swallowed  up  in  the  church  ;  the  town  was  merged  in  the  congrega- 
tion. Thus  in  a  short  time,  their  government  came  to  resemble  that  of  the  Je- 
suits in  Paraguay,  with  only  this  difference,  that  each  one  here  had  his  share 
in  the  tyranny.  The  Blue  Laws  of  Connecticut  are  a  monument  of  this  state 
of  things,  in  which  the  common  acts  of  life  were  subjected  to  the  most  vexa- 
tious restrictions.  The  New  Englanders  were  soon  obliged  to  renounce  their 
Mosaic  system  of  government,  and  without,  perfectly  separating  politics 
from  religion,  they  gave  to  each  of  the  two  powers  an  independent  existence. 
They  did  not  establish  the  political  power  firmly  beyond  the  town  ;  but  the 
municipal  constitution  was  solid  and  firm,  sometimes  even  to  excess,  for  tho 
very  reason  that  it  started  from  the  religious  organisation. 


382  LETTER  XXIX. 

on  the  earth  ;  it  is  not  so  to  affirm  that  war  is  henceforth 
to  be  a  secondary  and  accidental  matter  in  the  history  of 
nations.  Industry,  that  is  to  say,  the  art  of  creating  wealth, 
multiplying  the  means  of  happiness,  and  adorning  the 
globe,  the  residence  of  the  human  family,  will  henceforth 
take  precedence  of  the  art  of  slaying  and  wasting.  The 
sword  is  ceasing  to  be  the  highest  emblem  of  power.  But 
kings  are  right,  in  their  turn,  to  prevent  their  power  being 
reduced  to  an  empty  shadow.  Independently  of  all  indi- 
vidual ambition,  from  the  lofty  height  on  which  they  are 
placed,  they  see  that  the  preservation  of  the  order  of  soci- 
ety demands  the  presence  of  a  power  worthy  of  the  name. 
And  what,  proves  the  justness  of  their  view  is  the  fact,  that 
men  of  all  parties  who  have  taken  part  in  the  government 
during  our  revolutionary  crisis,  have  all  agreed  in  this 
point  whatever  may  have  been  their  former  opinions  ;  it  is 
the  only  point  on  which  they  have  been  unanimous. 

The  truth  is,  that  while  we  are  taking  from  govern- 
ments, we  must  also  be  giving  to  them.  War  is  no  longer 
the  principal  object  of  the  activity  of  nations  ;  the  employ- 
ment of  brute  force  becomes  less  and  less  necessary  to  the 
preservation  of  society  ;  let  us  then  gradually  reduce,  with 
a  firm  hand,  those  prerogatives  of  power  which  give  it  an 
exclusively  warlike  character,  and  which  leave  our  lives 
and  liberties  at  the  discretion  of  its  armed  creatures  !  Since 
industry  is  occupying  a  wider  and  wider  space  in  the  ex- 
istence of  the  individual  and  the  nation,  let  us  cause  it  to 
enter  more  and  more  completely  into  the  sphere  of  govern- 
ment, by  including  in  the  attributes  of  government  its 
three  springs,  banks,  means  of  communication,  and  schools  ; 
on  condition,  be  it  understood,  that  government  shall  use 
the  new  powers  with  which  it  shall  be  thus  invested,  for 
the  general  good. 

The  banks,  means  of  communication,  and  schools  are 
instruments  of  governments,  which  it  would  be  unwise  to 


THE  EMPIRE  STATE.  38S 

leave  wholly  out  of  the  influence  of  the  public  authority, 
but  which  there  could  be  no  harm  in  partially  incorpora- 
ting with  it,  in  such  a  manner  as  not  t«o  stifle  the  spirit  of 
individual  enterprise.  The  public  authority  would  then 
exercise  its  functions  conformably  with  the  tendencies  of 
the  ^national  character,  and  would  preside  over  the  most 
important  events  of  the  national  life  ;  it  would  then  really 
deserve  the  name  of  government ;  it  would  possess  a  new 
means  of  coercion  and  restraint,  which  is  the  only  one 
compatible  with  the  progress  of  the  spirit  of  liberty.  In- 
stead of  having  a  hold  on  the  body  and  blood  of  the  sub- 
ject, it  would  have  a  hold  on  his  industry  and  his  purse. 
A  new  degree  of  inviolability  would  thus  be  secured  to 
the  individual,  without  the  social  order  losing  its  needful 
guarantees.  By  this  means  in  fine  the  political  advent  of 
industry  would  be  accomplished.  Instead  of  being  a  cause 
of  agitation  and  change,  once  sure  of  its  rank  and  secure  in 
its  seat,  industry  would  act  an  important  conservative  part 
in  society. 

Every  thing  is  now  ripe  for  this  political  transfiguration. 
Forty  years  ago,  the  people  looked  for  their  own  elevation 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  old  order  of  things.  Hatred  has 
now  ceased  to  be  their  chief  counsellor ;  the  thirst  for  de- 
struction is  cooled  ;  they  think  less  of  shaking  off  the 
yoke  of  tyrants,  more  of  freeing  themselves  from  the  bur- 
dens of  ignorance  and  poverty.  The  road  to  liberty  which 
would  now  be  preferred  in  Europe,  passes  through  com- 
petency, education,  and  industry.  Those  who  were  once 
the  temporal  and  spiritual  heads  of  the  people  would  soon 
regain  their  lost  rank,  if  calming  the  fears  with  which 
the  curses  uttered  against  the  last  of  kings  and  the 
last  of  priests  had  filled  them,  they  knew  how  to  put 
themselves  at  the  head  of  such  a  march  ;  for  the  people 
could  follow  them  with  joy.  By  what  fatality  is  it,  that 
they  still  doubt  and  hesitate  ? 


384  LETTER  XXIX. 

I  know  not  if  I  deceive  myself,  but  it  seems  to  me, 
that,  in  this  matter,  the  example  must  come  from  France. 
Not  that  she  has'  greater  sums  in  her  treasury ;  not  that 
she  counts  more  soldiers  under  her  flag,  more  ships  in  her 
ports,  more  cannon  in  her  fortresses,  but  that  she  has  the 
most  sagacious  intellect,  and  the  noblest  heart ;  that  the 
world  is  accustomed  to  receive  the  watchword  from  her. 
London,  with  its  thousands  of  ships,  might  be  burnt  to 
the  ground,  and  the  rest  of  the  world  would  be  no  other- 
wise affected  by  the  event,  than  as  by  a  lamentable  dis- 
aster which  has  befallen  a  foreigner  ;  the  recoil  of  a  mere 
riot  in  Paris  is  felt  to  the  ends  of  the  world.  The  revo- 
lution of  July  gave  birth  to  Parliamentary  Reform  ;  the 
Reform  bill  would  never  have  brought  forth  July.  It  is 
because  France  is  the  heart  of  the  world  ;  the  affairs  of 
France  interest  all  ;  the  cause  which  she  espouses  is 
not  that  of  a -selfish  ambition,  but  that  of  civilisation. 
When  France  speaks,  she  is  listened  to,  because  she 
speaks  not  her  own  feelings  merely,  but  those  of  the 
human  race.  When  she  acts,  her  example  is  followed, 
because  she  does  what  all  desire  to  do. 

France  was  the  first  on  the  European  continent  to 
enthrone  liberty  ;  it  is  for  her  to  re-seat  the  principle  of 
authority,  for  the  fulness  of  its  time  is  come.  She  pro- 
tected the  people  when  protection  was  necessary ;  it  is 
now  for  her  to  protect  kings ;  not  by  the  edge  of  the 
sword,  although  she  must  not  break  her  own,  which  has 
done  so  much  for  civilisation  (for  that  would  be  sacrilege), 
but  by  the  wisdom  and  the  moral  superiority  of  her  new 
principles  of  government,  by  the  creative  power  of  the 
new  attributes  with  which  she  invests  authority. 


SYMPTOMS  OF  REVOLUTION.  385 


LETTER   XXX. 
SYMPTOMS    OF    REVOLUTION. 

BALTIMORE,  SEPTEMBER  25,  1835. 

Two  years  ago  Mr  Clay  began  a  speech  in  the  Senate, 
with  these  words,  which  have  become  celebrated  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  :  "  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  revolu- 
tion." It  was  at  the  time,  when  by  an  act  of  authority  be- 
fore unheard  of  in  American  history,  General  Jackson  had 
just  settled  the  bank  question,  which  his  friends  in  Con- 
gress and  even  his  own  ministers  had  refused  to  decide. 
These  words  have  often  been  repeated  by  others.  More 
recently,  since  the  scenes  of  murder,  outrage,  and  destruc- 
tion which  have  been  exhibited  through  the  United  States, 
both  in  the  slave-holding  States,  and  in  those  in  which 
slavery  does  not  exist,  in  the  country  as  well  as  in  the 
towns,  at  Boston,  the  republican  city  par  excellence,  as 
as  well  as  at  Baltimore,  for  which  the  bloody  excesses  of 
which  it  was  the  theatre  in  1812,  have  gained  the  title 
of  the.  Mob  Town,  good  citizens  have  repeated  with 
grief;  "  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  revolution." 

It  must  be  granted  to  the  honour  of  the  English  race, 
that  it  is,  more  deeply  than  any  other,  imbued  with  a  feel- 
ing of  reverence  for  the  law.  Until  lately,  the  Americans 
have  shown  themselves  in  this  respectl  as  well  as  in  others, 
to  be  double-distilled  Englishmen.  There  are  nations, 
who  conceive  of  law  under  a  living  form,  that  is,  only  so 
far  as  it  is  personified  in  a  man.  They  know  how  to  obey 
a  leader,  but  they  cannot  learn  to  respect  a  dead  letter. 
With  them  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  a  State  depend 
little  on  the  character  of  the  laws,  but  much  on  that  of 
the  men  who  are  their  organs.  In  their  view,  the  empire 
49 


386  LETTER  XXX. 

rises  and  falls  by  turns,  according  as  the  sovereign,  what- 
ever may  be  his  title,  is  a  superior  man  or  an  ordinary  per- 
sonage. Such  appears  to  be.  in  general,  the  character  of 
the  Asiatics.  The  Englishman  is  formed  in  a  different 
mould  ;  he  willingly  bows  to  the  authority  of  a  text ; 
but  he  stoops  to  man  with  reluctance.  He  does  not  need 
that  obedience  to  law  should  be  inculcated  by  the  voice  of 
man,  he  obeys  it  without  an  effort  and  by  instinct.  In  a  word 
the  Englishman  has  in  himself  the  principle  of  self-gov- 
ernment. This  fact  accounts  for  the  success  of  his  politi- 
cal system  in  the  United  States,  where  the  native  charac- 
ter of  the  English  race  is  fairly  developed. 

Unfortunately  the  reverence  for  the  laws  seems  to  be 
wearing  out  with  the  Americans.  This  people,  eminently 
practical  in  every  thing  else,  have  allowed  themselves  to 
be  pushed  into  the  excess  of  theory  in  politics,  arid  have 
here  taken  up  the  quand  meme  logic ;  they  have  shrunk 
from  none  of  the  consequences  of  popular  sovereignty,  at 
least  while  those  consequences  were  flattering  to  their 
pride ;  as  if  there  were  a  single  principle  in  the  world, 
not  excepting  Christian  charity  itself,  which  could  be  car- 
ried to  its  extreme  logical  consequences  without  resulting 
in  absolute  absurdity.  They  have,  therefore,  been  driven 
in  the  United  States  to  deny  that  there  is  any  principle 
true  in  and  by  itself,  and  to  assert  that  the  will  of  the  people 
is,  always  and  necessarily,  justice  ;  the  infallibility  of  the 
people  in  every  thing  and  at  all  times,  has,  in  fact,  become 
the  received  doctrine,  and  thus  a  door  has  been  opened  to 
the  tyranny  of  a  turbulent  minority,  which  always  calls 
itself  the  people.* 

The  appearance  of  this  miscalled  popular  justice,  admin- 

*  It  has  been  observed,  that  the  disorders  are  always  committed  by 
a  handful  of  men  followed  by  a  train  of  a  mischievous  boys.  It  is  rare  that 
more  than  one  hundred  persons  take  part  in  the  acts  of  violence,  and  often 
not  half  that  number  is  engaged  in  them. 


SYMPTOMS  OP  REVOLUTION.  387 

istered  by  the  hands  of  a  few  desperate  or  furious  men,  who 
call  themselves  the  successors  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party  of 
1773,  is  a  great  calamity  in  the  bosom  of  a  country,  where 
there  is  no  other  guarantee  of  the  public  peace  than  a 
reverence  of  the  laws,  and  where  the  legislator,  taking  for 
granted  the  prevalence  of  order,  has  made  no  provisions 
against  disorder.  This  popular  justice  has  the  greater 
condemnation  of  being  for  the  most  part  grossly  unjust. 
Most  of  the  men  who  have  been  atrociously  hanged,  or 
flogged,  or  tortured  in  twenty  other  ways  in  the  South,* 
as  abolitionists,  that  is  as  guilty  of  instigating  the  slaves 
to  rise  against  their  masters,  were,  according  to  all  appear- 
ances, merely  guilty  of  having  expressed  their  abhorrence 
of  slavery  with  too  little  caution.  It  is  even  doubtful 
whether  the  pretended  plots,  for  being  engaged  in  which 
whites  and  blacks  have  been  summarily  executed,  had  a 
real  existence.  At  least  no  proof  of  their  reality  has  yet 
been  brought  forward,  which  would  be  admitted  by  a 
court  of  justice.  During  the  outrages  last  month  at  Balti- 
more, which  were  continued  for  four  days,  this  self-styled 
justice  was  most  stupidly  unjust.  The  mob  gave  out  that 
it  wished  to  punish  those  knaves  who  had  shamefully 
abused  the  credulity  of  the  poor  in  the  affair  of  the  Bank 
of  Maryland.  It  is  a  matter  of  public  notoriety,  that  the 
bankruptcy  of  the  bank  was  fraudulent ;  that  just  before 
it  stopped  payment,  it  had  offered  a  high  rate  of  interest 
on  deposits  of  any  amount,  in  order  to  attract  to  its  coun- 
ter the  savings  of  the  labouring  classes  ;  but  it  was  also  a 
matter  of  notoriety,  that  the  criminal  acts  of  the  bank  were 
wholly  the  work  of  one  Evan  Poultney,  who  alone  was, 


*  A  Virginia  newspaper  relates  that  an  abolitionist,  having  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  a  Commitee  of  Vigilance,  was  stript  naked,  and  stretched  at  his 
length  on  his  face,  when  a  cat  was  several  times  dragged  across  his  bare  back 
by  the  ruffians.  A  New  York  Journal  repeats  the  statement  with  no  other 
comment  than  some  witticism. 


388  LETTER  XXX. 

in  fact,  the  bank.  Instead  of  going  to  take  vengeance  for 
the  ruin  of  the  artisan,  the  widow,  and  the  orphan,  on  the 
author  of  it,  the  mob  went  to  call  to  account  the  bank- 
ruptcy commissioners,  appointed  by  the  court.  It  was  not 
till  the  third  day  that  it  bethought  itself  to  make  a  visit  to 
Poultney,  who,  without  being  at  all  disconcerted,  began  to 
cry  out  that  he  was  a  sinner,  that  he  had  been  guilty  of 
wronging  his  neighbour.  He  beat  his  breast  in  sign  of  re- 
pentance, and  in  a  puritanical  slang  accused  himself  more 
loudly  than  the  rioters  had  done.  Blinded,  like  Orgon,  by 
so  much  sanctity,  they  excused  themselves  to  Tartufe  like 
him,  carefully  swept  the  hall  and  the  marble  door-steps 
which  they  had  soiled,  and  hastened  to  sack  the  house  of 
the  mayor,  because  a  small  detachment  of  militia,  sponta- 
neously assembled,  had  fired  upon  them  in  self-defence, 
after  having  stood  patient  for  some  time  under  a  shower 
of  stones. 

These  disorders  are  alarming  from  their  general  preva- 
lence, and  from  their  frequent  repetitions,  and  they  are  the 
more  so,  the  less  their  importance  is  realised.  They  meet 
with  few  voices  to  condemn  them,  but  they  find  many  to 
excuse  them.  One  of  the  defects  of  democracy  is  that  it  is 
forgetful  of  the  past,  and  careless  of  the  future.  A  riot, 
which  in  France  would  put  a  stop  to  business,  prevents  no 
one  here  from  going  to  the  Exchange,  speculating,  turning 
over  the  dollars,  and  making  money.  On  meeting  in  the 
morning,  each  one  asks  and  tells  the  news ;  here  a  negro 
has  been  hanged,  there  a  white  man  has  been  flogged  ;  at 
Philadelphia,  ten  houses  have  been  demolished  ;  at  Buffalo, 
at  Utica,  some  people  of  colour  have  been  scourged.  Then 
they  go  on  to  the  price  of  cotton  and  coffee,  the  arrivals  of 
flour,  lumber,  and  tobacco,  and  become  absorbed  in  calcu- 
lations the  rest  of  the  day.  I  am  surprised  to  see  how 
dead  the  word  equality  falls,  when  a  good  citizen  pronoun- 
ces it ;  the  reign  of  law  seems  to  be  at  an  end  ;  we  have 


SYMPTOMS  OF  REVOLUTION.  389 

fallen  under  that  of  expediency.  Farewell  to  justice,  fare- 
well to  the  great  principles  of  1776  and  1789  !  All  hail  to 
the  interest  of t  the  moment,  interpreted  by  nobody  knows 
who,  for  the  success  of  some  petty  intrigue  of  politics  or 
business ! 

Five  men,  five  white  men,  have  been  hanged  at  Vicks- 
burg  in  Mississippi,  without  even  the  form  of  a  trial  ;  they 
were  gamblers,  you  are  told,  the  scourge  of  the  country. 
The  most  respectable  citizens  of  Vicksburg  assisted  in 
their  execution.  But  the  law  which  guaranties  to  all  your 
fellow-citizens  the  trial  by  a  jury  of  peers  ;  but  that  old 
Saxon  justice  of  which  you  boast !  What  is  become  of 
them  ?  No  tribunal  would  have  been  able  to  rid  us  of  the 
rogues ;  morality  and  religion  condemn  them,  and  their 
decree,  for  want  of  others,  we  have  executed  ;  it  was 
necessary.  Expediency  !  In  Virginia,  travellers  from  the 
Northern  States,  on  the  slightest  pretences,  for  some  tavern 
gossip,  or  some  conversation  in  the  coach,  have  been  drag- 
ged before  the  self-styled  Committees  of  Vigilance,  beaten, 
tarred,  and  feathered.  Others,  whose  crime  consisted  in 
inadvertently  having  in  their  pocket,  some  papers  which 
the  slave-holder  has  been  pleased  to  pronounce  abolition 
writings,  have  been  seized  by  these  fanatics,  and  hanged  as 
emissaries  of  insurrection.  What  is  become  of  that  article 
of  the  constitution,  which  secures  to  the  citizens  of  each 
State  the  protection  of  the  laws  in  every  other  State  ?  If 
we  were  to  insist  on  these  points,  we  should  endanger  our 
union  with  the  South.  Expediency  !  Merchants  of  New 
York !  The  planters  of  one  of  the  parishes  of  Louisiana  have 
set  a  price  on  the  head  of  one  of  your  number,  because,  as 
they  say,  he  is  an  abolitionist,  an  amalgamator.  Will  not 
your  national  sensibility,  so  lively  in  regard  to  France,  be 
touched  by  this  act  of  audacity  ?  Our  commerce  with  the 
South  constitutes  half  the  prosperity  of  New  York.  Ex- 
pediency !  Men  of  New  England  !  Citizens  of  the  cradle 


390  LETTER  XXX. 

of  American  liberty  !  Sons  of  the  pilgrims,  self-exiled  first 
to  Holland,  and  then  to  the  sandy  shores  of  Massachusetts, 
rather  than  bow  their  opinions  to  the  will  ojf  the  Stuarts ! 
You,  so  proud  of  your  liberties,  how  can  you  abandon  the 
dearest  of  all,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  to  the  hands  of  a 
postmaster  ?  Always  the  same  reply  :  Expediency  I 

It  would  seem  as  if  political  principles  no  longer  existed 
in  the  United  States  but  at  the  pleasure  of  the  pas- 
sions, and  the  laws  had  no  force  when  they  jarred  with  in- 
terest. When  a  State  feels  itself  injured  by  a  tariff,  it 
declares  the  law  null  and  void,  amis  its  militia,  buys  pow- 
der and  throws  down  the  glove  to  Congress.  When 
another  State,  as  Ohio,  is  dissatisfied  with  the  boundary 
line  assigned  to  it,  it  declares  war  against  Michigan,  its 
neighbour,  in  order  to  extend  its  frontiers  by  force.  When 
the  fanatics  of  Massachusetts,  in  their  savage  intolerance, 
feel  offended  by  the  presence  of  a  Catholic  convent,  in 
which  the  sisters  devote  themselves  to  the  work  of  edu- 
cating young  girls  without  distinction  of  sect,  they  plun- 
der it  and  set  it  on  fire,  and  the  sacred  edifice  is  burnt,  in 
sight  of  a  city  with  70,000  inhabitants,  without  a  drop  of 
-  water  being  thrown  upon  the  flames,  and  without  its  being 
possible  to  find  a  jury  that  would  convict  the  authors  of 
the  cowardly  outrage.  When  a  Governor  of  Georgia* 
comes  into  collision  with  an  upright  magistrate,  who  inter- 
poses his  authority  between  the  rapacity  of  the  whites  and 
the  poor  Indian  whom  they  are  impatient  to  rob,  he  de- 
nounces the  just  judge  to  the  legislature,  and  urges  the 
passing  of  a  law  that  will  make  him  a  State  criminal. 
And,  I  repeat  it,  the  worst  and  most  fatal  symptom  of  the 
times  is,  that  the  perpetration  of  these  outrages,  however 
frequent  they  become,  excites  no  sensation.  The  destruc- 
tion of  the  churches  and  school-houses  of  the  blacks  in 

*  Gov.  Lumpkin. 


..SYMPTOMS  OF  REVOLUTION.  39 1 

New  York  was  looked  upon  as  a  show,  and  the  mer- 
chants of  the  city  as  they  passed,  paused  to  take  a 
moment's  relaxation  from  the  sight ;  the  fall  of  the  build- 
ings was  greeted  with  loud  cheers.  In  Baltimore,  a  nu- 
merous crowd  applauded  the  work  of  demolition  without 
inquiring  whose  house  was  pulled  down,  and  the  women, 
in  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  waved  their  handker- 
chiefs in  the  air. 

Another  symptom  still  more  alarming  !  Civil  courage, 
the  virtue  of  the  Hampdens,  the  glory  of  the  English  race, 
which  shone  with  so  pure  a  lustre  in  the  United  States 
whilst  the  authors  of  their  independence  survived,  seems 
to  be  for  a  time  extinct ;  I  say  for  a  time,  for  there  is  a 
stock  of  energy  in  the  American  character,  which  cannot 
fail  some  time  or  another  to  revive  and  put  forth  its 
strength  anew.  The  press,  which  with  a  few  honourable 
exceptions,  does  not  possess  and  does  not  merit,  in  the 
United  States,  the  consideration  which  it  enjoys  in 
France ;  the  press,  which  is  here  so  outrageously  violent 
and  brutal  in  its  treatment  of  members  of  Congress  belong- 
ing to  the  opposite  party,  is,  on  the  other  hand,  more  cau- 
tious and  reserved  in  regard  to  the  multitude.  The 
American  press  is  free  in  so  far  as  it  gives  no  bonds  and 
pays  no  stamp  duty,  but  it  is  dependent  on  a  capricious, 
despotic,  and  not  very  enlightened  public  opinion,  which 
requires  it  to  flatter  the  passion  of  the  hour,  and  does  not 
look  to  it  for  lessons  of  morality.  The  public  opinion  of 
the  democracy  is  a  master  who  is  easily  offended,  and  who 
quickly  shows  his  displeasure.  The  American  journalist 
is  well  aware  that  for  the  slightest  display  of  boldness  he 
will  be  deserted  ;  and  since  the  late  events,  this  is  not  his 
only  fear,  for  he  knows  that  if  his  enemies  should  choose 
to  brand  him  as  an  abolitionist,  for  example,  it  would  be 
easy  to  raise  a  mob  of  vagabonds,  who  would  pillage  and 
pull  down  his  house,  tar  and  feather  his  person,  and  drive 


392  LETTER  XXX. 

him  from  home  without  any  interference  by  the  public 
authorities.*  He  is  therefore  exceedingly  circumspect. 
In  a  word,  the  reign  of  terrour  is  begun  in  the  United 
States.  Men  of  courage  and  devotion  to  the  cause  of  law 
have  no  rallying  point  in  the  press ;  and  even  when  the 
public  authority  would  be  disposed  to  support  them,  it 
proves  insufficient,  either  through  fear,  or  concern  for  party 
interests,  or  want  of  physical  force.  To  the  small  number 
of  good  citizens  in  whom  the  state  of  the  country  excites 
the  liveliest  alarm,  there  appears  to  be  no  resource  left,  but 
that  of  organising  themselves  in  patriotic  societies,  forming 
themselves  into  military  companies,  of  creating,  in  fine,  a 
national  guard,  under  the  form  which  the  laws  and  nation- 
al customs  would  sanction.  They  feel  that  this  step  is 
necessary,  but  they  hesitate,  because  they  fear  to  kindle  a 
civil  war.  The  Baltimoreans,  however,  seem  determined 
to  make  the  trial.f  It  has  also  been  proposed  to  make  the 

*  An  editor  of  a  newspaper  was  lately  driven  from  Boston  by  a  mob,  on 
account  of  his  abolition  principles,  and  not  long  since  another  was  subjected 
to  the  same  ostracism  in  New  Orleans  for  having  offended  a  militia  company 
by  his  remarks. 

i  The  question  of  an  armed  police  has  for  some  time  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  enlightened  individuals  in  the  United  States;  the  constable's  staff 
and  the  posse  comitatus  of  the  sheriff  are  no  longer  sufficient  to  maintain 
order  and  keep  the  peace.  Independently  of  political  difficulties,  however, 
economical  considerations  stand  in  the  way  of  the  project.  Virginia,  for 
example,  has  nearly  two-fifths  of  the  superficial  area  of  France.  An  armed 
police  of  one  thousand  men,  which  would  be  inconsiderable  for  that 
extent  of  country,  would  cost  her  about  800,000  dollars  a  year,  a  sum,  say 
the  calculators,  which  would  more  than  pay  the  interest  of  a  loan  that  would 
enable  us  to  construct  a  canal  or  a  railroad  from  Richmond  to  the  Ohio.  So 
the  canal  is  made,  and  the  armed  police  put  off  for  another  day.  Mean- 
while if  some  travellers  from  the  North  are  hanged  or  flogged  as  abolitionists 
by  the  slaveholders,  in  a  moment  of  excitement,  the  affair  is  regretted  at 
first,  but  it  is  thought  to  be  more  important  to  have  a  canal  or  railroad  which 
shall  make  Richmond  the  rival  of  New  York,  than  to  save  two  or  three 
fanatics  from  the  lash  or  the  halter.  This  system  is  .deplorable.  But  I 
know  not  that  we  have  a  right  to  denounce  it,  for  we  must  confess,  that 
something  analogous  prevaili  amongst  us.  We  demand  money  without 


SYMPTOMS  OF  REVOLUTION.          393 

towns  responsible  by  law  for  the  damages  committed 
within  their  limits.  Such  a  law,  if  it  did  not  have  the 
effect  wholly  to  prevent  the  disorders,  for  the  taxes  here  are 
mostly  paid  by  the  rich,  would  at  least  have  the  merit  of 
repairing  the  losses  suffered  by  means  of  them. 

The  present  generation  in  the  United  States,  brought  up 
in  devotion  to  business,  living  in  an  atmosphere  of  interest, 
if  it  is  superiour  to  the  last  generation  in  commercial  intelli- 
gence and  industrial  enterprise,  is  inferiour  to  it  in  civil 
courage  and  love  of  the  public  good.  Deplorable  fact  ! 
When  Baltimore  was  not  long  since  given  up  to  the  genius 
of  destruction  four  \vhole  days,  when  the  protection  of 
the  city  had  been  vainly  transferred  from  the  mayor  to  the 
sheriff,  and  from  the  sheriff  to  the  commanding  officer  of 
the  militia,  when  the  prisons  had  been  forced,  and  the 
spirit  of  order  began  at  last  to  revive,  not  a  man  was  found 
in  this  city  of  100,000  souls  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  movement.  When  the  most  respectable  citizens,  and 
those  most  deeply  interested  in  the  restoration  of  the  pub- 
lic tranquillity  held  a  meeting  in  the  Exchange,  the  moun- 
tain in  labour  brought  forth  only  a  long  series  of  whereases 
on  the  advantage  of  public  order,  and  a  string  of  wordy 
resolutions  which  resolved  nothing.  Nothing,  shameful 
to  relate,  but  the  presence  of  a  veteran  relic  of  the  Revo- 
lution with  the  weight  of  eightyfour  years  on  his  head, 
who  had  retired  from  Congress  to  end  his  long  career  in 
repose,  but  who  felt  his  blood  boil  in  his  veins  and  mantle 
in  his  cheeks  at  the  spectacle  before  him, — nothing  but  his 
presence  gave  courage  to  this  assembly  of  men  in  the 
vigour  of  life,  who  were  letting  their  city  fall  a  prey  to  a 
handful  of  drunkards  and  depraved  boys.  The  indignant 

hesitation  for  war,  for  organising  and  keeping  up  a  large  military  force,  for 
filling  our  arsenals  with  cannon  ;  but  how  difficult  is  it  to  procure  any  for 
useful  enterprises,  roads,  canals,  railroads,  schools,  penitentiaries,  to  which 
the  United  States  devote  almost  all  their  resources  ? 

50 


394  LETTER  XXX. 

old  man,  started  up  and  interrupted  the  reading  of  the  res- 
olutions ;  "  Damn  your  resolutions  !"  cried  he  ;  "  give  me  a 
sword  and  thirty  men,  and  I  will  restore  order  ?"  "  What ! 
General  Smith,"  said  one  of  these  irresolute  makers  of  res- 
olutions, "would  you  fire  upon  your  fellow  citizens?15 
"  Those  who  break  the  laws,  drive  their  neighbour  from 
his  house,  plunder  his  property  and  reduce  his  wife  and 
children  to  beggary,"  answered  Gen.  Smith,  "  such  fellows 
are  not  my  fellow-citizens."  These  words,  which  ex- 
pressed the  thoughts  of  all,  but  which  no  one  dared  utter, 
were  received  with  a  thunder  of  applause.  The  aged 
senator  was  named  commander  of  the  military  force  by 
acclamation,  and  a  few  days  after  was  chosen  mayor. 
Since  that  time  Baltimore  has  been  quiet.  But  when  we 
reflect  that  order  has  been  restored  in  a  large  and  flourish- 
ing city,  only  because  there  happened  to  be  present  a  vet- 
eran whom  death  had  spared,  and  who  had  energy  enough, 
with  one  foot  in  the  grave,  to  come  forward  and  teach  his 
fellow  citizens,  by  example,  the  lessons  of  the  golden  age 
of  American  liberty,  are  we  not  forced  to  exclaim  with 
Mr  Clay ;  "  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  revolution." 

Mr  Clay  is  no  false  prophet ;  for  the  events  that  have 
succeeded  each  other  since  he  uttered  these  words,  an- 
nounce that  a  crisis  is  at  hand.  The  American  system  no 
longer  works  well.  In  the  North,  the  removal  of  all  re- 
strictions on  the  right  of  suffrage,  without  the  creation  of 
any  counterpoise,  has  destroyed  the  equilibrium.  In  the 
South,  the  old  foundation  borrowed  from  the  ante-Christian 
ages,  on  which  it  has  been  attempted  to  raise  the  super- 
structure of  a  new  social  order  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
shakes  and  threatens  to  bury  the  thoughtless  builders  un- 
der the  ruins  of  their  half-finished  work.  In  the  West,  a 
population  sprung  from  the  soil  under  the  influence  of  cir- 
cumstances unparallelled  in  the  history  of  the  world,  al- 
ready aifects  a  superiority,  or  rather  lays  claim  to  domin- 


SYMPTOMS  OF  REVOLUTION.  395 

ion,  over  the  North  and  South.  Everywhere,  the  relations 
established  by  the  old  federal  compact,  become  unsuited  to 
the  new  state  of  things.  The  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
the  mere  thought  of  which  would  have  caused  a  shudder  of 
horrour,  ten  years  ago,  which  was  numbered  among  those 
acts  of  infamy  that  are  not  to  be  named,  —  the  dissolution 
of  the  Union  has  been  demanded,  and  no  thunder  fell  upon 
the  head  of  the  perpetrator  of  the  sacrilege.  At  present  it 
is  a  common  topic  of  conversation.  The  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  if  it  should  take  place,  would  be  the  most  complete 
of  all  revolutions. 

What  will  be  the  character  of  this  revolution,  which  is 
felt  to  be  approaching  ?  To  what  institutions  will  it  give 
birth  ?  Who  must  perish  in  the  day  of  account  ?  Who  will 
rise  on  the  storm  ?  Who  will  resist  the  action  of  ages  ?  I 
have  not  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  I  shall  not  try  to  pierce 
the  mystery  of  the  destinies  of  the  New  World.  But  I 
have  a  firm  faith,  that  a  people  with  the  energy  and  intel- 
ligence which  the  Americans  possess  ;  a  people  which  has 
like  it  the  genius  of  industry,  which  combines  perseve- 
rance with  the  resources  of  ingenuity,  which  is  essentially 
regular  in  its  habits  and  orderly  in  its  disposition,  which 
is  deeply  imbued  with  religious  habits,  even  when  a  lively 
faith  is  wanting,  such  a  people  cannot  be  born  of  yester- 
day to  vanish  on  the  morrow.  The  American  people,  in 
spite  of  its  original  defects,  in  spite  of  the  numerous  voids 
which  a  hasty  growth  and  a  superficial  education  have 
left  in  its  ideas,  feelings,  and  customs,  is  still  a  great  and 
powerful  people.  For  such  nations,  the  most  violent  storms 
are  wholesome  trials  which  strengthen,  solemn  warnings 
which  teach,  elevate,  and  purify  them. 


396  LETTER  XXXI. 


LETTER   XXXI. 


THE      MIDDLE      CLASSES. 

BALTIMORE,  OCT.  8,  1835. 

AMERICAN  society  is  composed  of  quite  different  ele- 
ments, from  those  of  which  European  society  in  general, 
and  French  society  in  particular,  consists.  On  analysing 
the  latter,  we  find,  in  the  first  place,  the  shadow  of  an 
aristocracy,  comprising  the  wrecks  of  the  great  families 
of  the  old  order  that  have  been  saved  from  the  revolu- 
tionary storm,  and  the  descendants  of  the  Imperial  nobil- 
ity, who  seem  to  be  already  separated  from  their  fathers 
by  the  distance  of  ages. 

Next  below  this  is  a  numerous  body  of  the  Middle 
Classes  (bourgeoisie),  consisting  of  two  distinct  sets ;  the 
one,  the  active  class,  is  engaged  in  commerce,  manufac- 
tures, agriculture,  and  the  liberal  professions ;  the  other, 
generally  designated  amongst  us  as  the  bourgeoisie  oisive, 
consists  of  men  without  active  employment,  landholders 
who  derive  an  income  of  500  or  1500  dollars  from  their 
estates,  by  rents  or  sharing  the  produce  with  the  cultivator, 
without  attempting  to  increase  it.  and  the  small  body  of 
holders  of  public  stock. 

These  t\vo  divisions  of  the  Middle  Class  differ  essen- 
tially from  each  other,  the  one  labouring,  the  other  only 
consuming  and  enjoying  what  they  have.  The  one  in- 
creases its  means,  and  consequently  is  able  to  keep  itself 
above  the  waves,  and  maintain,  if  not  to  raise,  its  level  ; 
the  other,  as  M.  Lafitte  has  said,  successively  transported 
by  time  into  one  stage  of  society  after  another,  in  each  of 
which  large  additions  are  made  to  the  general  wealth, 
finds  itself  growing  relatively  poorer,  and  must  decrease  in 


• 

THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES.  397 

numbers.  They  differ  no  less  in  their  origin;  the  one 
belongs  essentially  to  the  commons  ;  the  other  has  some 
pretensions  to  nobility,  it  is  the  offspring,  or  at  least  the 
heir  and  successor  of  the  country-gentry.  During  the 
period  of  the  Restoration,  they  differed  also  in  their  politi- 
cal views  ;  the  members  of  the  one  class  for  the  most  part 
took  the  left  side,  those  of  the  other  preferred  the  right 
side.  At  present,  the  former  accepts  the  new  dynasty  with- 
out reluctance ;  the  latter,  more  difficult  to  be  satisfied  in 
regard  to  the  preservation  of  order,  and  ready  to  take 
alarm  at  every  violation  of  old  established  privileges,  still 
preserves  a  secret  preference  for  the  legitimate  line.  In 
respect  to  religious  sentiments,  the  latter  is  sceptical,  and 
prone  to  believe  that  the  Voltairean  philosophy  and  the 
theories  broached  by  the  Opposition  during  the  fifteen 
years,  are  the  nee  plus  ultra  of  the  human  understanding  ; 
the  former,  shaken  in  its  faith,  still  keeps  alive  the  sacred 
fire  of  religious  feeling,  rejects  the  disorganising  doctrines 
of  the  18th  century,  and  holds  in  scorn  the  lucubrations  of 
the  liberal  publicists  of  the  Restoration.  The  one  piques 
itself  on  its  adherence  to  the  positive,  the  material ;  the 
other  concerns  itself  about  the  great  conservative  princi- 
ples of  .society,  but  refuses  to  recognise  the  new  interests, 
which  must  be  allowed  to  share  in  the  privileges  of  those 
of  the  past. 

These  two  sections  of  the  Middle  Class  are  not  wholly 
and  sharply  separated  from  each  other  ;  but  they  run  into 
and  across  each  other.  A  large  proportion  partakes  some- 
what of  both  characters,  and  joins  one  side  or  the  other, 
according  to  times  and  circumstances.  Yet,  although 
often  confounded  in  the  same  individual,  the  two  interests 
are,  nevertheless,  substantially  distinct  from  each  other. 
The  base  of  the  pyramid  is  occupied  by  the  peasants  and 
operatives,  divided  into  two  sections ;  the  one  of  which 
has  become  possessed  of  property,  the  other  has  not  yet 


398  LETTER  XXXI. 

reached  that  point  but  aspires  after  it  with  eagerness. 
On  one  side,  we  have  the  mechanics  and  small  proprietors  ; 
on  the  other,  the  labourers.  It  is  universally  acknowl- 
edged that  the  Middle  Class,  at  present,  rules  in  France. 
The  aristocracy  is  driven  from  power  or  keeps  itself  aloof. 
The  mechanics  and  small  proprietors  hardly  yet  begin  to 
raise  their  heads.  The  labourers  are  nothing. 

In  the  Northern  States  of  the  American  Union,  society 
is  much  less  complex  in  its  composition,  than  in  France. 
Exclusive  of  the  coloured  caste,  there  are  here  only  two 
classes  ;  the  middle  class  and  the  democracy.  Of  the 
two  conflicting  interests,  one  only  has  a  public  existence 
here  ;  it  is  labour.  The  Middle  Class  consists  of  the 
manufacturers,  merchants,  lawyers,  physicians.  A  small 
number  of  cultivators,  and  persons  devoted  to  letters  or  the 
fine  arts,  is  to  be  added  to  these. 

The  democracy  is  composed  of  the  farmers  and 
mechanics.  In  general,  the  cultivator  is  the  owner  of 
the  soil  ;  in  the  West,  this  rule  is  without  exceptions. 
Great  landholders  do  not  exist,  at  least  as  a  class,  in  the 
North  and  the  Northwest.  There  is  strictly  speaking  no 
class  of  mere  labourers ;  for  although  there  are  day- 
labourers,  and  both  in  the  cities  and  country  many  work- 
men without  capital,  yet  these  are  in  fact  apprentices,  for 
the  most  part  foreigners,  who  become  in  turn  proprietors 
and  master-workmen,  and  not  unfrequently  rich  manufac- 
turers, wealthy  speculators. 

Between  these  two  classes  there  is,  however,  no  line  of 
demarcation,  for  the  attempts  of  some  coteries  to  establish 
certain  fashionable  distinctions  do  not  deserve  notice, 
or  at  least  are  only  of  a  negative  value,  as  timid  and 
often  absurd  protestations  against  the  abuse  of  equality. 
The  two  classes  have  the  same  domestic  habits,  and  lead 
the  same  life,  and  difTer  considerably  only  in  respect  of  the 
sect  to  which  they  are  attached,  and  the  pews  they  occu- 


THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES.  399 

py.  The  relations  which  exist  at  present  between  the 
wealthy  bourgeoisie  and  the  wrecks  of  the  aristocracy  in 
France,  give  an  accurate  notion  of  the  relative  condition 
of  the  two  classes  of  American  Society. 

Political  influence  is,  at  present,  entirely  in  the  hands 
the  American  democracy,  as  with  us  it  is  monopolised 
by  the  Middle  Classes.  The  latter  have  no  chance  of 
getting  possession  of  power  in  the  United  States,  except 
temporarily,  or  by  means  of  accidental  divisions  in  the 
democratic  ranks,  when  they  may  rally  to  their  standard 
a  portion  of  the  farmers  and  mechanics,  as  happened  in 
1834;  after  General  Jackson's  attack  on  the  Bank.  So  in 
France,  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  aristocracy  to  raise, 
not  its  own  banner  (for  it  has  none),  but  that  of  the  legiti- 
mate line,  unless  the  folly  of  the  government  should  ex- 
cite new  troubles,  and  inspire  the  Middle  Class,  who 
now  support  it  heartily,  with  fears  for  the  public  security. 

In  the  Southern  States,  the  existence  of  slavery  pro- 
duces quite  a  different  state  of  society,  from  that  of  the 
North  ;  half  of  the  population  there  consists  of  mere 
labourers  in  the  strictest  sense,  that  is  of  slaves.  Slavery 
necessarily  requires  great  estates,  which  in  fact,  form  aris- 
tocracy. Great  estates  still  continue  to  be  held  in  the 
South,  notwithstanding  the  custom  of  equal  partition  has 
very  much  narrowed  them. 

Between  these  two  extremes  in  the  South,  an  interme- 
diate class  has  sprung  up,  consisting,  like  our  Middle 
Class,  of  the  workingmen  and  the  men  of  leisure,  the 
new  interest  and  the  old  interest.  Commerce,  manufac- 
tures, and  the  liberal  professions,  on  one  side ;  on  the 
other,  the  land-holders,  corresponding  to  our  moderate 
country  land-holders,  living  on  their  estates  by  the  sweat 
of  their  slaves,  having  no  taste  for  work,  not  prepared  for 
it  by  education,  and  even  taking  little  oversight  of  the 
daily  business  of  the  plantation ;  men  who  would  be 


400  LETTER  XXXI. 

incapable  of  applying  themselves  to  any  occupation  if 
slavery  were  abolished,  just  as  our  proprietors  would  be 
unable  to  get  a  living,  if  they  were  to  be  deprived  of 
their  estates. 

It  is  plain  that  the  equal  partition  of  estates  must  have 
tended  to  increase  the  number  of  this  class  of  men  of 
leisure  ;  it  is  numerous  in  the  old  Southern  States,  Vir- 
ginia, the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  and  also  in  Louisiana ; 
the  check  which  these  States  at  first  experienced  in  their 
career,  whilst  the  North  was  advancing  without  let,  and 
the  contemporaneous  increase  of  this  class,  are  two  corre- 
lative facts,  which  account  for  each  other.  But  we  do 
not  find  this  class  in  the  new  States  of  the  South.  The 
new  generation  there,  as  in  the  North,  devoured  with  the 
the  passion  of  making  money,  has  become  as  industrious 
as  the  Yankees.  The  cultivation  of  cotton  offers  it  a  wide 
field  of  activity  ;  in  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  the  cotton 
lands  are  sold  at  a  very  low  price.  The  internal  slave- 
trade  furnishes  hands  in  abundance,  which  are  easily  pro- 
cured on  credit  when  one  has  friends,  but  no  patrimony. 
The  sons  of  the  old  Southern  States,  instead  of  vegetating 
on  a  fragment  of  the  paternal  estate,  with  a  handful  of 
negroes,  sell  off  their  property  at  home,  extend  their  means 
by  aid  of  a  loan,  which  they  are  sure  of  being  able  to 
repay  promptly,  and  go  to  the  Southwest,  to  establish  a 
a  cotton-plantation,  a  sort  of  agricultural  manufactory,  in 
which  they  are  obliged  to  exercise  more  or  less  of  the 
activity,  and  to  feel  more  or  less  of  the  hopes  and  fears  of 
a  manufacturer. 

Thus  the  class  which  works  little  or  not  at  all,  is  dis- 
appearing in  the  United  States.  In  the  Western  States, 
which  are  the  true  New  World,  it  no  longer  exists  at  all, 
in  the  North  or  in  the  South ;  you  meet  with  no  one 
there  who  is  not  engaged  in  agriculture,  commerce,  manu- 
factures, the  liberal  professions,  or  the  clerical  office.  The 


THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES.  401 

United  States,  then,  differ  from  us  in  having  no  aristocracy, 
no  idle  Middle  Class,  no  class  of  mere  labourers,  at  the 
least  in  the  North.  But  a  distinction  should  be  made  in 
regard  to  the  absence  of  these  three  classes  ;  for  while  it 
may  be  admitted  that  the  two  last  are  absolutely  becoming 
extinct,  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  the  first  has 
not  yet  begun  to  exist. 

Civilisation,  in  its  passage  from  one  continent  to  the 
other,  has,  then,  got  rid  of  two  classes.  This  twofold 
disappearance  is,  however,  only  a  single  phenomenon,  or,  at 
most,  two  phases  of  a  single  fact,  the  industrial  progress 
of  mankind.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  inevitable,  that,  in 
this  matter,  the  Old  World  should  follow  the  example  of 
the  New  ;  it  moves  towards  the  same  end  under  the  influ- 
ence of  peculiar  causes,  and  it  is  irresistibly  driven  onward 
by  what  is  commonly  called  the  force  of  events,  that  is, 
by  the  decree  of  providence. 

There  is  a  rule  superior  to  all  social  conventions,  codes 
of  legislation,  or  systems  of  jurisprudence  ;  it  is,  that 
when  a  class  has  ceased  to  take  part  in  the  workings  of 
society,  its  doom  is  pronounced ;  it  cannot  preserve  its 
privileges,  unless  the  march  of  civilisation  comes  to  a 
stand,  and  it  is  kept  stationary,  as  it  was  in  Rome  from 
Augustus  to  Constantine ;  but  when  the  column  again 
sets  forward,  those  who  will  not  serve  as  soldiers,  and  are 
unfit  to  be  officers,  those  who  can  do  duty  neither  in  the 
ranks  nor  in  command,  who  can  act  neither  in  the  tent 
nor  the  field,  all  these  are  abandoned  as  stragglers,  and 
their  names  are  struck  from  the  roll.  The  law  is  inflexible 
and  unsparing  ;  no  human  power  can  rescue  those  whom 
it  condemns  from  their  doom  ;  they  only  can  save  them- 
selves, by  taking  part  in  the  general  movement. 

This  explains  the  annihilation  of  the  aristocracy  of  the 
nobility  in  France.  Between  it  and  royalty,  as  between 
royalty  and  the  English  aristocracy,  there  was  a  long 
51 


402  LETTER  XXXI. 

struggle,  but  the  results  were  as  different  as  the  characters 
of  the  nations.  In  France,  monarchical  unity  triumphed  ; 
Louis  XI.  struck  down  the  aristocracy  ;  Richelieu  muzzled 
it  ;  Louis  XIV.  obliged  it  to  wear  the  collar.  Thus  re- 
duced in  a  political  point  of  view,  it  was  left  in  possession 
of  the  field  of  taste  and  art,  which  it  devoted  to  the  pro- 
motion of  irreligion  and  corruption  of  manners.  When, 
therefore,  it  was  weighed  in  1789,  it  was  found  wanting  ; 
the  decree  of  destiny  had  gone  forth,  and  the  revolution 
executed  it  with  a  cannibal  ferocity.  The  unhappy  aris- 
tocracy remembered  its  lofty  nalure  only  at  the  point  of 
death  ;  it  mounted  the  scaffold  with  dignity. 

For  the  same  reason,  the  idle  portion  of  the  Middle  Class 
tends  towards  its  fall,  for  it  accomplishes  no  purpose, 
which  cannot  be  effected  without  it.  It  does  not  enrich 
society  by  its  labour,  although  it  lays  claim  to  be  reckoned 
in  the  number  of  producers,  under  the  pretext  that  it  holds 
the  soil  and  exercises  a  sort  of  superintendence  over  its 
cultivation.  The  truth  is,  that  it  is  wholly  ignorant  of 
agriculture  ;  it  has  received  by  tradition  a  certain  routine, 
but  the  peasantry  is  as  fully  possessed  of  the  tradition,  and 
needs  no  teachers  on  that  matter.  The  proprietor  is  some- 
times, indeed,  paid  in  kind  by  the  peasant,  and  then  sells 
the  grain  himself ;  but  the  peasant  could  easily  attend  to  that 
business,  and  would  manage  it  quite  as  well  as  his  land- 
lord. Neither  does  this  class  serve  as  the  representative  of 
knowledge  ;  for  in  this  respect,  its  acquisitions  are  limited 
to  a  little  polite  literature,  an  agreeable  accomplishment 
surely,  but  not  answering  to  the  wants  and  spirit  of  the 
age. 

Where  a  nobility  exists  and  maintains  its  prerogatives, 
as  in  England,  it  performs  a  twofold  office.  In  the  first 
place,  it  devotes  itself  to  the  most  difficult  of  all  arts,  that 
of  governing  men,  and  in  this  it  excels ;  whether  because 
it  cultivates  it  by  the  traditions  of  experience,  or  because 


THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES.  403 

it  vigilantly  recruits  its  ranks  by  enlisting  in  them  such 
men  as  have  already  proved  their  superiour  knowledge  of 
the  different  interests  of  society.  This  reason  cannot  be 
urged  by  our  idle  Middle  Class  as  an  argument  for  its 
preservation  ;  for  it  is  notoriously  ignorant  of  the  science 
of  government. 

The  second  office  of  a  nobility,  not  less  essential  than 
the  first  in  our  polished  age,  is  to  serve  as  a  pattern  and 
example  in  the  art  of  living,  to  teach  the  art  of  consuming, 
without  which  that  of  producing  procures  only  partial  and 
illusive  gratification,  and  to  encourage  the  fine  arts.  On 
this  head  nothing  can  be  said  in  favour  of  the  class  alluded 
to.  It  excels  neither  in  grace,  nor  elegance,  nor  address. 
The  importance  which  it  has  acquired  by  the  destruction 
of  the  aristocracy,  has  been  fatal  to  the  old  French  polite- 
ness, to  that  exquisite  courtesy  on  which  our  fathers  prided 
themselves.  Within  the  last  fifty  years,  whilst  the  Eng- 
lish have  been  improving  in  this  respect,  much  more  suc- 
cessfully than  their  stiff  and  unpliant  humour  seemed  to 
promise,  we  have  forgotten  much  and  unlearned  much, 
under  the  controlling  influence  of  our  Middle  Class. 

As  for  the  art  of  consuming  with  grace  and  living  well, 
and  that  care  of  the  person,  the  only  fraction  of  which  that 
they  can  be  sensible  to,  the  English  call  comfort,  our  Mid- 
dle Class  has  lessons  to  learn,  but  none  to  give.  It  is  not, 
however,  the  fault  of  nature ;  for  no  people  has  received 
finer  and  acuter  senses  than  ours.  Surely,  our  nerves  are 
more  sensitive,  our  ear  and  our  palate  more  delicate  than 
those  of  the  English.  Our  superiority  on  these  points,  is 
attested  by  the  fact,  that,  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the 
other,  we  are  in  possession  of  most  of  the  trades  which 
relate  to  the  person  ;  the  office  of  cook,  head-dresser,  dan- 
cing-master, valetj  or  tailor,  is  everywhere  monopolised  by 
the  French.  But  to  surround  oneself  with  the  English 
comfort,  and  that  more  refined  comfort  which  we  can 


404  LETTER  XXXI. 

conceive  of,  one  must  be  rich.  Now  our  Middle  Class  is 
poor,  and  politically  considered  this  is  one  of  its  greatest 
faults  ;  it  grows  poorer  daily,  either  by  the  operation  of 
the  law  which  commands  the  equal  partition  of  estates,  or 
of  that  idleness  which  condemns  it  to  a  stationary  income, 
whilst  public  wealth  and  luxury  are  increasing  all  around 
it.  It  cannot,  therefore,  encourage  the  fine  arts,  for  the 
patronage  of  the  arts  is  costly  ;  besides  taste  is  growing  rare 
in  France  since  the  fall  of  the  aristocracy. 

Nor  can  it  be  affirmed  that  the  unemployed  Middle  Class 
in  France  represents  the  element  of  order,  and  that  if  it 
were  to  disappear,  France  itself  would  perish  in  frightful 
convulsions.  For  the  labouring  class  is  already  ripe  for  a 
better  state  of  society,  and  requires  only  the  advantages  of 
instruction,  and  of  more  favourable  terms  and  more  nu- 
merous opportunities  for  industry,  to  be  in  a  condition  to 
exercise  all  the  rights  of  a  citizen  as  usefully  as  the  great- 
er portion  of  the  Middle  Class.  And  even  if  the  latter  re- 
presents in  whole  or  in  part  the  element  of  order,  it  is  only 
by  the  aid  and  the  instrumentality  of  four  hundred  thousand 
bayonets,  exclusive  of  those  of  the  Middle  Class  itself,  and 
thus  it  retains  its  predominance  only  by  opposing  the  mul- 
titude to  the  multitude  ;  a  critical  and  dangerous  position, 
which  cannot  long  be  held,  for  the  very  bayonets  are  be- 
ginning to  become  intelligent. 

The  bourgeoisie  oisive  has,  then,  only  one  course  to  take ; 
that  is,  to  pass  into  the  ranks  of  the  working  men,  to  fit 
themselves  to  become  the  leaders  of  the  people  in  its  la- 
bours. When  this  is  done,  our  fields,  which  belong  espe- 
cially to  their  domain,  will  change  their  aspect  as  if  by 
enchantment,  and  our  peasants,  who,  it  cannot  be  too 
often  repeated,  at  present  form  the  poorest  and  most  nu- 
merous class  in  France,  will  be  raised  to  a  better  condition, 
of  which  they  are  worthy.  The  idle  Middle  Class  must 
now  become  with  the  government,  to  which  the  first  step 

• 


ARISTOCRACY.  405 

in  all  great  projects  of  improvement  belong,  responsible  for 
the  progress  of  twenty-five  millions  of  agricultural  labour- 
ers. 

In  this  change  it  has  every  thing  to  gain  itself.  By  this 
means  it  will  maintain  and  confirm  its  own  social  rank,  for 
it  will  thus  recover  the  confidence  of  the  multitude,  and 
will  turn  its  superiority  to  a  good  account  by  exercising  a 
beneficent  patronage  towards  its  inferiours.  It  will  ex- 
change a  straitened  condition  for  competency  or  even 
wealth,  and  the  tedium  of  a  life  of  inaction  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  having  done  well,  the  consciousness  of  having  faith- 
fully performed  a  great  duty.  This  honourable  desertion 
of  the  standard  of  idleness  for  that  of  industry  is  now  going 
forward  daily.  Let  us  rejoice  at  it :  let  us  pray  that  it  may 
speedily  become  universal.  Let  us  especially  urge  gov- 
ernment to  accelerate  it,  by  encouraging  the  development 
of  industry,  by  all  the  means  and  aids  that  can  improve  the 
condition  and  resources  of  agriculture,  and  inspire  the 
young  generation  with  a  desire  to  devote  themselves  to 
this  first  of  arts. 


LETTER   XXXII. 
ARISTOCRACY. 

PHILADELPHIA,  OCT.  13,  1835. 

No  great  society  can  be  durable,  except  in  so  far  as  au- 
thority is  established  in  it.  We  may  easily  imagine  a  case, 
however,  in  which  the  authority  may  be  temporarily 
thrown  into  the  shade  ;  when  a  great  nation  is  in  search 
of  political  and  social  forms  suited  to  its  wants,  when  it 


406  LETTER  XXXII. 

is  obliged  to  pass  from  trial  to  trial,  to  feel  its  way,  and  turn 
itself  successively  to  different  points  ;  when,  beside,  its  sep- 
aration from  the  rest  of  the  world  guaranties  its  indepen- 
dence, and  frees  it  from  the  necessity  of  organising  itself 
under  the  apprehension  of  assaults  from  abroad,  it  is  then 
permitted,  it  is  even  necessary,  that  it  should  provide  for 
the  greatest  possible  freedom  of  motion,  and  that  it  should 
cast  off  all  unnecessary  and  unprofitable  restraints.  But 
then  a  society  without  a  fixed  order  and  political  ties,  is 
an  anomaly,  a  passing  phenomenon.  The  social  bonds  of 
opinion  and  religion,  the  only  ones  which  exist  here,  can- 
not supply  the  want  of  political  ties,  unless  they  are 
straightened  to  such  a  degree  as  to  become  despotic. 
Besides,  when  large  towns  like  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  Baltimore,  have  once  grown  up,  and  there  is  a  numer- 
ous floating  population,  which  opinion  and  religion  cannot 
watch  closely,  manners  and  belief  have  need  of  the  firm 
support  of  the  laws. 

The  serious  character  and  frequent  occurrence  of  disor- 
ders in  the  American  Union,  at  the  present  time,  prove 
that  the  period  has  come,  when  it  will  be  necessary  for 
authority  to  be  organised.  There  are  interests  in  the 
South,  for  example,  which  are  filled  with  alarm,  and 
which  for  want  of  legal  protection,  protect  themselves, 
right  or  wrong,  in  a  brutal  manner,  and  feel  the  necessity 
of  a  power  upon  which  they  can  rely  for  safety.  In  the 
Middle  Class  of  the  cities  of  the  North,  there  is  a  popula- 
tiau,  enervated  or  rather  refined  by  wealth,  which  is  no 
longer  ready  to  exercise  that  portion  of  self-government 
that  consists  in  the  suppression  of  violence  by  force,  and 
in  the  democracy,  there  is  a  restless  and  turbulent  element 
which  force  alone  can  hold  in  check.  These  two  classes, 
which  are  peculiar  to  the  North,  and  whose  numbers  daily 
increase,  will  soon  be  unable  to  live  with  each  other,  with- 
out the  intervention  of  power. 


ARISTOCRACY.  407 

Authority  has  two  bases,  upon  which,  to  stand  firm,  it 
must  be  supported,  like  man  upon  two  feet ;  these  are 
unity  or  centralisation,  and  the  distinction  of  ranks.  The 
corresponding  bases  of  liberty  are  equality,  and  independ- 
ence. The  spirit  of  unity  or  centralisation  is  already 
beginning  to  appear  in  several  of  the  United  States.  (See 
Letter  XXIX.). 

It  is  not  strictly  correct  to  say  that  the  Americans  have 
renounced  the  principle  of  authority ;  for  they  have  from 
the  beginning  adopted  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people.  It  is  true  that  they  understood  it,  at  first,  nega- 
tively ;  that  is  as  a  simple  denial  of  authority  in  the  Euro- 
pean sense,  or  of  military  power  founded  on  conquest  ; 
but  when  the  doctrine  of  equality  had  once  secured  to 
the  democracy  the  superiority  over  the  Middle  Class,  the 
democracy  gradually  took  upon  itself  the  exercise  of 
that  sovereignty,  for  its  own  interest,  well  or  ill  under- 
stood, at  the  dictation  of  its  passions  good  or  bad  ;  here, 
then,  was  power  in  the  fullest  extent  of  the  word,  here 
was  a  dictatorate  :  not  indeed  permanent  and  steady,  but 
showing  itself  by  starts  and  at  intervals.  For  the  most 
of  Ihe  time  it  may  be  said  to  have  slumbered,  and  left  the 
field  free  to  the  spirit  of  individuality  ;  it  has  roused  itself 
occasionally  only  to  strike  a  decisive  blow,  and  to  sink 
back  again  into  its  slumbers  ;  but  however  irregular  may 
have  been  its  action,  still  here  has  been  power,  and  power 
legal  in  its  character  and  bold  in  its  operations,  and  gradu- 
ally extending  their  sphere. 

The  New  England  States,  which  are  the  incarnation  of 
the  spirit  of  division  and  individualism,  have  advanced 
little  in  this  direction.  The  old  Southern  States,  although 
they  have  more  of  the  spirit  of  centralisation,  have  also 
shown  themselves  timid  in  this  matter.  The  Middle 
States,  and  particularly  New  York,  have  made  the  great- 


408  LETTER  XXXII. 

est  progress ;  those  of  the  West,  and  particularly  of  the 
Northwest,  seem  disposed  to  imitate  them. 

This  centripetal  power  has  operated  in  two  ways ; 
negatively,  in  setting  limits,  and  sometimes  narrow  ones, 
to  the  independence  of  personal  action,  whether  exercised 
singly  by  individuals  or  collectively  by  companies.  It  has, 
for  example,  reduced  the  privileges  of  incorporated  com- 
panies in  general,  and  the  railroad  and  banking  companies 
in  particular,  or  rather  it  has  assumed  to  itself  to  be  omni- 
potent in  regard  to  them ;  at  this  moment,  the  democracy 
in  the  North  is  raising  the  hue  and  cry  after  all  companies. 
It  has  imposed  various  restrictions  upon  commerce,  such 
for  instance,  as  the  inspection  laws  relative  to  exported 
produce.  Positively,  it  has  interfered  with  the  private 
transactions  of  individuals,  and  suspended  or  annulled 
them  ;  thus  in  the  West,  ex  post  facto  laws  have  been 
passed  in  favour  of  debtors  ;  or  the  courts  which  refused 
to  yield,  have  been  abolished  in  a  body,  as  in  Kentucky  ; 
or  monopolies  have  been  created  and  sold  for  the  profit  of 
the  State,  as  in  New  Jersey.  Within  a  few  years  other 
measures  of  a  more  fundamental  and  comprehensive  nature 
have  been  adopted,  and  the  centralisation  of  the  schools, 
the  means  of  communication,  and  the  banks,  the  three 
institutions  of  the  most  vital  importance  in  a  society 
devoted  to  industry,  has  already  been  commenced.  Thus 
the  germ  of  a  vigourous  central  authority,  which  will, 
embrace  all  the  ruling  interests  of  the  country,  is  already 
beginning  to  sprout.  In  this  respect  the  North  and  the 
South,  the  East  and  the  West,  with  the  exception  of  New 
England,  which  is  held  back  by  its  spirit  of  subdivision,* 
seem  to  be  unanimous. 


*  It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  Massachusetts  has  lately  adopted  the 
new  policy  in  regard  to  public  works.  [And  it  might  be  added  in  respect 
to  the  school-system.— TUANSL.] 


ARISTOCRACY.  409 

If  any  danger  is  to  be  feared  in  the  Northern  States, 
during  the  coming  period,  it  is  not  the  absence,  but  the 
excess  of  power  that  is  to  be  apprehended.  Whilst  the 
democracy  in  these  States  retains  its  jealousy  of  the  mili- 
tary, it  appears  to  be  regardless  of  the  accumulation  of 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  legislators.  It  refuses  to  appeal 
to  arms,  even  for  the  suppression  of  the  most  brutal  vio- 
lence ;  but  it  is  willing  to  use  or  abuse  the  omnipotence 
of  the  popular  representation,  and  it  would  not  hesitate,  in 
ease  it  should  be  provoked  by  circumstances,  to  exercise  it 
in  the  most  tyrannical  manner.  A  representative  govern- 
ment loses  the  character  of  a  compromise  between  the 
different  social  interests,  and  degenerates  into  an  instru- 
ment of  despotism  in  the  hands  of  the  multitude.  In 
America,  it  had  its  origin  in  the  concessions  of  the  Middle 
Class  to  the  democracy.  At  present  the  positions  are 
reversed  ;  the  Middle  Class  now  stands  in  need  of  conces- 
sions and  does  not  seem  likely  to  get  them. 

Instead  of  the  physical  tortures  of  the  Inquisition,  this 
despotism,  if  it  gains  strength  and  stability,  would  practice 
the  most  cruel  moral  tortures,  it  would  have  its  Procustes' 
bed  for  intellect  and  wealth  ;  its  level  for  genius.  Under 
pretence. of  equality  it  would  establish  the  most  fatal  uni- 
formity. As  it  would  be  successively  exercised  by  the 
changing  favourites  of  the  multitude,  it  would  be  eminently 
fickle  and  capricious  ;  ever  calling  in  question  and  unset- 
tling all  that  was  established,*  it  would  end  by  palsying 

*  In  1834,  the  Ohio  legislature  incorporated  a  Life  and  Trust  Company, 
with  very  great  powers;  the  company  was  organised  in  1835,  and  in  1836, 
a  proposition  was  made,  in  the  legislature  the  effect  of  which  would 
have  been  indirectly  to  abolish  it.  Happily  the  legislature  saw  the  necessity 
of  keeping  up  the  credit  of  the  State  by  a  faithful  adherence  to  its  engage- 
ments, and  the  proposition  was  rejected.  Mr  Dallas,  of  Philadelphia,  who 
has  been  a  Senator  of  the  United  States,  has  quite  recently  urged  the  adop- 
tion of  ex  post  facto  measures,  with  the  object  of  annulling  the  charter  of  the 
United  States  Bank. 

52 


410  LETTER  XXXII. 

the  spirit  of  enterprise,  which  has  created  the  prosperity  of 
the  country. 

In  the  Southern  States,  the  white  democracy  has  a 
pedestal  in  slavery.  In  order  to  realise  its  own  elevation, 
it  is  not  obliged  to  be  continually  engaged  in  lowering  the 
superiour  classes ;  it  exercises  its  authority  on  what  is 
beneath,  and  thinks  less  of  attacking  what  is  over  it.  In 
the  South,  society  is  divided  into  masters  and  slaves  ;  the 
distinction  of  higher  and  lower  class  is  there  of  secondary 
importance,  particularly  at  the  present  time,  when  the 
alarming  state  of  their  relations  with  the  blacks,  obliges  all 
whites  to  act  in  concert.  In  the  South,  moreover,  slavery 
will  soon  oblige  the  local  governments  to  maintain  an  armed 
police,  which,  while  it  keeps  down  the  slaves,  will  also 
serve  to  prevent  the  repetition  of  excesses,  by  which  this 
section  of  the  union  has  recently  been  sullied,  and  the  imi- 
tation of  those  outrages  on  private  property  and  public 
order,  of  which  the  North  has,  of  late,  so  frequently  been 
the  theatre. 

Centralisation  is  one  half  of  authority ;  distinction  of 
ranks,  the  other  half,  cannot  be  easily  supplied  in  the 
United  States,  particularly  in  the  North,  where,  however, 
it  is  necessary  that  some  institution  should  give  stability 
and  strength  to  authority.  There  are  two  sorts  of  aristo- 
cracy ;  aristocracy  of  birth,  and  aristocracy  of  talents.  I  do 
not  now  speak  of  the  aristocracy  of  money,  for  this  has  no 
chance  of  establishing  itself,  and  can  acquire  influence  only 
by  being  merged  in  one  of  the  two  others. 

All  great  societies  which  have  existed  up  to  this  time, 
have  established  with  more  or  less  solidity,  one  or  the 
other  of  these  aristocracies,  or,  to  speak  more  correctly, 
both.  An  aristocracy  of  talents  existed  even  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Egyptian  and  Hindoo  castes  ;  but  Christianity  first 
distinctly  established  an  order  of  classification  founded  on 
intellect,  not  only  in  each  nation,  but  throughout  the 


ARISTOCRACY.  411 

Catholic  Church  ;  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  was  organ- 
ised on  this  principle.  It  could  not  be  otherwise  ;  the 
unity  of  God  and  of  the  human  race  was  an  article  of 
faith  ;  for  the  Christian  there  was  only  one  God,  the  father 
of  all  men,  before  whom  all  distinctions  of  birth  were  as 
nothing. 

But  by  the  side  of  this  aristocracy  of  intellect,  all 
nations  which  have  reached  a  lofty  political  elevation,  and 
founded  durable  empires,  have  had  an  aristocracy  of  birth, 
a  civil  and  military  nobility.  Among  some  not  very  nu- 
merous peoples  of  antiquity,  the  nobility  was  composed  of 
all  free  citizens,  who  were  inferiour  in  numbers  to  the 
slaves.  Such  were  the  republics  of  Greece,  whose  politi- 
cal superiority,  however,  was  of  short  duration.  Such  were 
the  Arabs,  among  whom  there  were  rayas,  Christians,  and 
Jews,  below  the  faithful.  The  nations  which  have  had  most 
weight  in  the  balance  of  European  civilisation,  have  been 
differently  constituted  ;  above  the  free  citizens,  they  had 
a  hereditary  privileged  class.  Such  was  Rome  ;  such  is 
England  ;  in  the  same  way  the  empire  of  Islam  was  not 
solidly  or  firmly  fixed,  until  a  handful  of  Turks  was 
placed  over  the  Arabs,  as  a  privileged  class. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  the  last  of  the  great  societies 
which  have  passed  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  Christian 
society,  or  that  in  which  the  aristocracy  of  intellect  was  first 
fully  developed,  is  also  that  in  which  aristocracy  of  birth 
has  been  most  strongly  marked.  The  sons  of  Japhet, 
who  gave  the  impulse  and  acted  as  leaders  to  this  move- 
ment of  civilisation,  brought  with  them  from  the  North,  a 
strong  spirit  of  family,  with  which  their  political  systems 
have  been  deeply  impregnated  ;  thus  arose  the  most  strict- 
ly hereditary  nobility  which  has  ever  been  seen.  Till 
that  time  the  hereditary  system  had  been  applied  to  caste ; 
the  Germans  extended  hereditary  distinctions  and  func- 


412  LETTER  XXXII. 

tions  to  family,  with  the  additional  restriction  of  primo- 
geniture. What  before  had  been  an  exception  in  favour 
of  royal  families,  they  applied  to  all  noble  families.  This 
organisation,  more  or  less  modified,  still  prevails  in  most 
of  the  European  States.  But  yesterday,  it  seemed  as  vigour- 
ous  as  ever  in  England.  It  is  true  that  it  has  there  con- 
formed itself  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  that  it  has  become 
pliant  and  elastic,  opened  its  ranks  to  the  aristocracy  of 
intellect,  and  consecrated  its  wealth  and  employed  its 
privileges,  not  in  gratifying  its  own  caprices,  nor  in  satia- 
ting its  passions,  but  in  spreading  all  around  it,  the  net- 
work of  a  vast  and  beneficent  patronage. 

At  the  present  day,  there  is  a  violent  reaction  against 
hereditary  distinctions  and  aristocracy  of  birth.  On  all 
points  of  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Western  civilisa- 
tion, the  aristocracy  of  feudal  origin  is  battered  down, 
here  by  the  democracy,  there  by  the  Middle  Class,  and 
elsewhere  by  royalty.  In  the  general  league  against  it, 
the  emperor  of  Russia  gives  his  hand  to  the  American 
democracy  and  the  French  bourgeoisie,  and  the  British 
democracy  in  the  person  of  O'Connell,  is  allied  with  the 
king  of  Prussia  and  the  emperor  of  Austria. 

Whatever  opinion  we  may  entertain  of  the  present  value 
of  aristocracy  of  birth,  we  are  obliged  to  acknowledge, 
that,  in  the  past,  it  has  rendered  great  services  to  the 
human  race.  But  for  the  establishment,  of  the  feudal 
system,  the  barbarian  hordes  would  have  continued  to 
drive  over  the  face  of  Europe,  tribe  dashing  against  tribe, 
nation  hurled  against  nation.  The  principal  distinction  be- 
tween the  Germans  or  Normans,  and  the  followers  of 
Attila  or  Genghis  Khan,  is  that  the  former  had  the  instinct 
of  organisation,  as  is  manifested  by  their  conception  of 
the  feudal  system,  and  the  latter  were  destitute  of  it. 
England  is  chiefly  indebted  to  her  aristocracy  for  her  bril- 


ARISTOCRACY.  413 

liant  success.*  I  do  not  regret  the  past,  for  our  share  of 
glory  is  still  great,  although  France  has  been  conquered  by 
her  rival  in  the  field  and  in  the  cabinet,  and  in  every  part 
of  the  world,  in  Europe,  America,  and  Asia.  Yet  I  may 
be  permitted  to  say,  that  if  the  French  aristocracy  had 
triumphed  in  its  struggle  with  Richelieu,!  the  destinies  of 
the  world  might  have  been  completely  changed;  and 
France,  perhaps,  would  then  have  played  the  part  which 
has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  England. 

The  right  of  primogeniture,  extended  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  aristocracy,  ought  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  senseless 
imitation  of  the  customs  of  the  nobility  by  vain  commori- 
ers.  Although  it  may  be  difficult  to  defend  this  custom, 
on  the  ground  of  equity,  yet  it  has  been  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  greatness  of  England.  It  is  clear  that  it  is  favoura- 
ble to  the  accumulation  of  capital  in  few  hands ;  now 
capital  is  like  man,  powerful  when  united  in  masses,  fee- 
ble when  divided.  England  is  indebted  to  the  law  of 
primogeniture  for  an  ever  swarming  army  of  younger  sons, 
eager  to  exercise  their  enterprise  in  the  colonies,  and  con- 

*  The  English  aristocracy  is  accessible  to  every  man  of  superior  qualities. 
The  king  can  and  often  does  make  a  peer  of  a  commoner,  and  the  order  of 
knights,  which  is  the  lowest  degree  of  nobility,  is  essentially  an  aristocracy 
of  talents  and  personal  services,  not  being  hereditary.  But  if  the  aristocra- 
cy of  intellect  has  thus  got  a  footing  in  the  aristocracy  of  birth,  the  latter 
has  also  encroached  upon  the  former ;  for  with  the  constitution  of  the  An- 
glican church,  and  in  the  absence  of  monasteries  and  the  numerous  gratui- 
tous institutions  of  the  olden  time,  it  is  more  difficult  for  a  swine-herd,  like 
Sixtus  V.,  to  rise  in  the  establishment  at  the  present  day,  than  it  would  have 
been  for  him  to  reach  the  summit  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy  in  the  Middle 
Ages. 

t  The  French  aristocracy  which  fought  the  fight  with  Richelieu  was 
Protestant,  and  was  more  enlightened  than  the  English  aristocracy  of  the 
same  day.  French  protestantism  was  the  flower  of  Europe  in  every  respect, 
even  in  industry.  It  is  well  known  that  the  English  and  German  manu- 
factures made  great  progress  immediately  after  the  revocation  of  the  edict 
of  Nantes,  which  drove  four  hundred  thousand  of  our  fellow  countrymen 
from  France. 


414  LETTER  XXXII. 

tented  with  their  lot,  whether  because  they  readily  obtain 
assistance  from  the  head  of  the  family,  or  because  they  are 
full  of  energy,  and  know  that  by  industry  they  will  obtain 
wealth,  or  because  they  do  not  think  that  the  world  can 
be  arranged  on  a  different  system.  Meanwhile,  the  elder 
sons  have  formed  an  opulent  metropolis,  which  has  given 
ample  aid  to  its  distant  possessions  in  all  emergencies,  and 
has  gradually  gained  the  supremacy  in  Europe. 

But  it  would  be  madness  to  think  of  repairing  the 
broken  walls  of  feudalism,  or  to  wish  to  copy,  in  France 
or  the  United  States,  the  English  aristocracy,  even  with  its 
mode  of  recruiting  its  ranks  by  those  distinguished  for 
merit  and  services  ;  these  orders  of  things  have  had  their 
day.  Yet  all  nations  which  aim  to  become  or  to  remain 
powerful,  must  have  an  aristocracy  ;  that  is  to  say,  a  body, 
which,  whether  hereditary  or  not,  may  preserve  and  per- 
petuate traditions,  give  system  and  stability  to  policy,  and 
devote  itself  to  the  most  difficult  of  all  arts,  which  every 
one  at  the  present  day  thinks  he  knows  without  having 
learned  it,  that  of  governing.  A  people  without  an  aris- 
tocracy may  shine  in  letters  and  art ;  but  its  political 
glory  must  be  as  transitory  as  a  meteor. 

I  know  not  if  I  allow  myself  to  be  deceived  by  my 
admiration  for  the  past,  although  I  do  not  conceal  from 
myself  how  much  of  tyranny  has  been  exercised  over  the 
great  mass  of  mankind.  But  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
believe,  that  the  hereditary  principle,  or,  in  more  general 
terms,  the  sentiment  of  family,  should  be  entirely  exclu- 
ded from  the  aristocratical  part  of  the  new  social  order, 
which,  although  yet  wrapped  in  uncertainty  and  mystery, 
is  now  struggling  into  existence  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  The  sentiment  of  family  is  not  becoming 
extinct.  Like  all  other  social  institutions,  the  constitution 
of  the  family  has  undergone  various  changes,  since  the 
beginning  of  the  historical  period.  In  the  earlier  times, 


ARISTOCRACY.  415 

every  thing  was  swallowed  up  in  the  father,  and  the  individ- 
uality —  the  rights,  privileges,  and  duties  —  of  the  wife  and 
children  was  the  successive  growth  of  ages  ;  but  through 
all  these  changes,  the  family  sentiment  has  gained,  rather 
than  lost.  If  this  progressive  movement  is  not  violently 
checked,  the  new  institutions  with  which  our  civilisation 
is  now  big,  must  give  a  place  in  the  political  system  to  the 
family  sentiment,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  this  can 
be  done,  without  a  certain  infusion  of  the  hereditary  prin- 
ciple. 

It  may  be  objected,  that,  in  the  United  States,  the  fam- 
ily sentiment  is  much  weaker,  than  it  is  in  Europe.     But 
we  must  not  confound  what  is  merely  accidental  and  tem- 
porary, with   the  permanent  acquisitions  of  civilisation. 
The  temporary  weakness  of  the  family  sentiment  was  one 
of  the  necessary  results  of  the  general  dispersion  of  indi- 
viduals, by  which  the  colonisation  of  America  has  been 
accomplished ;    the     eiFect  must   cease     with   the   cessa- 
tion of  the  temporary  cause  which  produced  it,   that  is, 
with  the  interruption  of  emigration  to  the  West.     As  soon 
as  they  have  got  their  growth,  the   Yankees,  whose  spirit 
now  predominates  in  the  Union,  quit   the  paternal  roof 
never  to-  see  it  again,  as  naturally  and  with  as  little  emo- 
tion, as  young  birds  desert  forever  their  native  nest  as  soon 
as  they  are  fledged  ;  but  the  predominance  of  the  Yankees, 
at  least,  as  they  now  are,  does  not  seem  to  me  destined 
to  be  perpetual  ;    I  do  not   see  in  them  the  ultimate  and 
permanent  type  of  the  American. 

Even  amongst  the  Yankees  themselves  the  family  sen- 
timent has  maintained  a  strong  hold,  by  means  of  the  bible, 
the  sanctity  and  strictness  of  the  marriage  tie,  the  ample 
powers  left  to  the  father  in  disposing  of  his  property. 

Within  the  three  last  centuries,  the  rnoveable  elements 
have  shot  up  with  a  wonderful  vigour  in  western  civilisation. 
Manufactures  and  the  press,  the  organ  of  philosophy  and 


416  LETTER  XXXII. 

profane  learning,  have  destroyed  the  balance  between  the 
opposing  forces  of  innovation  and  conservation,  whose 
equilibrium  is  necessary  to  constitute  order.  These  two 
new  powers,  whose  tendency  is  to  reform  every  thing, 
have  gained  the  advantage  over  the  old  powers  of  society, 
and  trampled  down  the  twofold  aristocracy  of  birth  and 
talents,  the  clergy  and  the  nobility.  Must  we,  then,  con- 
clude that  these  two  aristocracies,  or  even  either  of  them, 
are  stone  dead  ;  or  must  we  not  rath'er  admit  that  order, 
that  is  to  say,  the  equipoise  of  the  innovating  and  the  con- 
servative powers,  cannot  subsist,  unless  authority  is  recon- 
structed in  its  ancient  strength,  without,  however,  retain- 
ing the  brutal  traits  of  its  former  character  ?  Is  not  this  a 
reason  that  the  hierarchy  should  be  established  at  least 
as  firmly  as  in  past  times  ?  Although  it  need  not  borrow 
from  the  past  the  unyielding,  unelastic,  and  absolute  fea- 
tures of  the  old  aristocracies.  And  is  there  any  principle 
of  stability  and  solidity,  comparable  to  that  of  hereditary 
transmission  ?  One  may  be  permitted,  or  rather  is  obliged, 
to  doubt  it. 

Systems  of  great  stability  have,  doubtless,  been  organ- 
ised without  hereditary  succession.  The  Catholic  hie- 
rarchy offers  the  most  complete  example  of  this  fact ;  it 
has  now  stood  eighteen  hundred  years.  But  in  order  to 
produce  this  result,  it  was  necessary  to  root  out  the  senti- 
ment of  family  from  the  bosoms  of  its  members,  by  bind- 
ing them  to  celibacy  ;  and  to  substitute  for  the  natural 
principle  of  stability,  that  of  hereditary  succession,  a  mere- 
ly artificial  principle,  that  of  rigourous  discipline,  and  pas- 
sive obedience, — or  in  other  words,  stability  has  here  been 
obtained  at  the  sacrifice  of  liberty. 

The  two  powers  of  commerce  and  the  press  are  eminently 
fluctuating  and  unquiet,  only  because  they  are  not  yet  regu- 
larly organised.  They  are  susceptible  of  being  modified, 
and  of  being  restrained  in  their  innovating  tendencies,  so 


ARISTOCRACY.  417 

as  to  render  the  restoration  of  the  conservative  force  in  all 
its  vigour  less  necessary.  The  industrial  interest  would 
certainly  be  less  averse  to  the  privileges  of  the  lay  aristo- 
cracy, if  it  were  permitted  to  participate  in  them,  or  if  it  had 
its  own  peculiar  prerogatives.  Learning,  of  which  the 
press  is  the  sword,  would  have  showed  less  antipathy 
towards  the  spiritual  hierarchy,  had  not  the  latter  repulsed 
and  rejected  it.  It  is  not  impossible  that  we  may  be  des- 
tined to  witness  a  sort  of  industrial  nobility ;  it  is  even 
possible  that  we  may  come,  by  degrees,  in  the  course  of 
time,  to  entertain  the  question  of  a  more  or  less  complete 
monopoly  of  learning  and  the  press  under  some  form  or 
another.  Instead  of  throwing  down  the  aristocracy,  we 
might  give  it  additional  strength  and  stability,  by  connect- 
ing it  with  learning  and  industry,  which  would  then  serve 
as  its  buttresses,  instead  of  becoming  the  instruments  of  its 
ruin.  In  such  a  system  as  this,  the  aristocracy  would  be 
less  compact  and  less  exclusive  ;  it  would  soar  less  loftily 
over  the  rest  of  mankind  ;  but  it  would  cover  more 
ground,  it  would  gain  in  breadth  and  length  what  it  lost 
in  height,  and  it  would  leave  nothing  beyond  the  reach  of 
its  influence.  Equality  would  probably  gain  by  this 
arrangement  ;  but  human  independence  would  lose  by  it. 
It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  to  guess  at  the  future  forms 
which  the  hierarchy  may  assume,  to  foresee  the  diiforent 
interests  of  which  society  will  hereafter  be  composed,  or 
to  name  beforehand  the  institutions  in  which  they  will 
embody  themselves.  A  multitude  of  combinations,  which 
no  one  can  divine,  are  possible.  Many  will  take  place, 
either  successively  in  the  same  country,  or  simultaneously 
in  different  countries.  But  two  things  appear  to  me  to  be 
certain :  one  of  these  is,  that  new  social  phenomena  of 
great  magnitude  are  on  the  eve  of  being  exhibited,  either 
in  America  or  in  Europe  ;  and  the  other,  that  the  sentiment 
53 


418  LETTER  XXXII. 

of  family  cannot  be  ultimately  and  absolutely  erased  from 
the  political  catalogue. 

For  Europeans,  the  immediate  and  complete  abolition 
of  a  hereditary  aristocracy  seems  to  me  beset  with  the 
greatest  difficulties.  The  nations  of  Western  Europe  have 
received  their  laws  and  usages  from  the  Germans  and 
Romans,  that  is,  from  two  stocks  strongly  impregnated 
with  the  sentiment  of  family ;  there  is  not  an  inch  of 
their  soil,  a  stone  of  their  monuments,  a  line  of  their 
national  songs,  which  does  not  awaken  this  sentiment  by 
recalling  this  two-fold  origin  ;  it  seems,  then,  impossible 
that  they  should  be  ready  to  adopt  at  once  a  political  sys- 
tem, in  which  it  was  allowed  no  place  nor  consideration. 
We  may,  however,  be  sure  that  the  principle  of  heredi- 
tary succession  must  henceforth  be  limited  within  certain 
bounds.  The  idea  of  perpetuity,  whether  of  punishment 
or  of  reward,  is  foreign  from  our  age,  and  will  not,  cer- 
tainly, be  more  acceptable  to  future  ages.  We  live  longer 
in  the  space  of  time  than  our  fathers ;  the  same  number 
of  years,  therefore,  represents  a  much  greater  duration 
than  formerly.  If  the  aristocratic  investiture  were  to 
endure  only  for  a  few  generations,  aristocracy  would  not 
cease  to  be  the  most  coveted  of  privileges  and  the  most 
stable  of  institutions;  while  the  jealousy  of  the  non- 
privileged  classes  would  be  less  keen  in  regard  to  its  pre- 
rogatives, if  the  nobility  bore  upon  its  front  the  inscrip- 
tion ;  "  Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return." 

This,  however,  would  not  be  enough ;  the  aristocracy 
of  birth  requires  a  spur.  To  exercise  the  most  important 
functions,  it  is  not  enough  that  one  has  taken  the  trouble 
to  be  born.  There  is  something  monstrous  in  the  privi- 
lege of  the  English  peerage,  of  being  legislators  by 
hereditary  right.  In  the  Middle  Age's  it  was  necessary  to 
have  gained  the  spurs,  before  one  could  gird  on  the  sword 
and  raise  the  banner  of  a  knight.  In  Rome,  birth  made 


ARISTOCRACY.  419 

Patricians,  but  not  Senators.  Similar  restrictions  would 
be  useful  in  all  countries  ;  with  a  people  like  the  French 
and  the  Southern  Europeans,  they  would  be  indispensable. 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  whence  a  hereditary  aristocracy  in 
France  is  to  be  derived,  if  we  must  really  have  one.  A 
nucleus  of  old  families  or  of  military  men  would  be 
wanting,  around  which  the  new  elements  might  group 
themselves.  Now,  the  old  French  nobility  allowed  itself 
to  be  degraded  to  the  state  of  menials  under  Lowis  XIV., 
and  sunk  into  the  grossest  debauchery  under  Louis  XV.  ; 
the  trials  of  exile  did  nothing  for  those  who  escaped 
the  revolutionary  axe ;  when  they  re-appeared  amongst 
us,  they  had  forgotten  nothing,  and  learned  nothing.  The 
infusion  of  the  military  aristocracy  of  the  empire  has  not 
regenerated  it.  Is  the  retirement  to  which  the  old  nobility 
has  condemned  itself  since  the  revolution  of  1830,  a  re- 
treat, in  which  by  meditation  and  repentence  it  is  to  renew 
its  youth,  or  is  it  not  rather  a  tomb,  in  which  it  has  buried 
itself  forever?  Will  the  old  soil  be  heaved  by  earth- 
quakes into  new  inequalities  of  surface  ?  Have  we  among 
our  peasants  some  unknown  scions  of  the  slayers  of 
Caesar,  or  of  the  children  of  Brennus,  who  will  be  re- 
vealed to  the  world  by  some  mighty  convulsions  ?  Or 
will  some  Tartar  horde  from  the  North,  the  great  hive  of 
nations,  put  an  end  to  our  domestic  quarrels,  fix  them- 
selves in  our  palaces,  seize  our  most  fertile  fields,  wed  our 
noblest,  richest,  and  loveliest  heiresses,  and,  sword  in 
hand,  proclaim  to  us ;  "  The  reign  of  lawyers  is  over, 
ours  is  begun." 

If  the  United  States  have  also  to  constitute  an  aristo- 
cracy, and  give  political  existence  to  the  sentiment  of 
family,  their  future  would  be  yet  more  cloudy  and  uncer- 
tain than  our  own.  The  hereditary  element  of  aristocracy 
has  always  come  from  conquest,  or,  at  least,  has  supported 
itself,  by  alliance  or  compromise,  by  the  sword  of  the 


420  LETTER  XXXIJ. 

conqueror.  How  can  there  be  a  conquest  in  the  United 
States  ?  It  is  possible  that  they  may  conquer  Mexico,  but 
they  cannot  be  conquered  by  it.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that 
some  red  Alexander  or  Charlemagne  from  the  distant 
steppes  of  the  West,  heading  the  fierce  tribes  of  the  Paw- 
nee braves,  and  dragging  in  his  victorious  train  swarms  of 
revolted  negroes,  can  ever  become  the  founder  of  a  mili- 
tary dynasty  and  aristocracy.  If  the  Union  should  ever 
be  dissolved,  and  the  hardy  sons  of  the  West,  pouring 
down  from  the  Alleghanies,  should  ever  conquer  the  peo- 
ple of  the  North,  enervated  by  luxury  and  enfeebled  by 
anarchy,  and  those  of  the  South,  weakened  by  servile 
wars,  still  no  germ  of  a  hereditary  aristocracy  would  exist 
in  such  a  conquest ;  for  the  victors  and  vanquished  would 
all  be  of  the  same  family. 

The  Southern  States,  however,  are  already  organised 
on  the  principle  of  hereditary  aristocracy.  It  is  true  that 
the  privileged  class  is  so  numerous,  that,  unless  a  privilege 
is  established  within  a  privilege,  they  do  not  form  an 
aristocracy  properly  so  called  ;  but  the  fear  of  a  rising  of 
the  blacks  keeps  the  whites  closely  united  and  forces  them 
to  submit  to  a  vigourous  organisation  of  authority  at 
every  sacrifice.  The  relative  situation  of  the  whites  and 
blacks  admits  of  no  hesitation. 

It  is  evident  that  the  establishment  of  a  hierarchy  pos- 
sessing any  stability,  would  be  the  most  difficult  in  the 
States  without  slaves,  and  that  the  elevation  of  the  senti- 
ment of  family  to  political  dominion,  would  there  encoun- 
ter the  most  vigourous  resistance.  In  the  maritime  States 
north  of  the  Potomac,  the  difficulty  would  seem  to  be 
insurmountable.  These  States  contain  large  towns,  with 
an  extensive  commerce  carried  on  by  great  houses,  great 
factories  in  the  English  style,  powerful  trading,  financial, 
and  manufacturing  companies,  that  is  to  say,  the  germs  of 
an  extreme  inequality ;  yet  their  laws  consecrate  a  system 


ARISTOCRACV.  421 

of  absolute  equality,  and  the  sovereign  democracy  shows 
itself  resolved  to  maintain  it  at  all  costs.  Between  these 
two  counteracting  forces,  a  struggle  is  going  on,  and  cases 
might  be  imagined  in  which  the  contest  may  assume  a 
terrible  character.  If  any  cause  were  to  interrupt  the 
prosperity  of  these  States ;  if,  by  means  of  a  separa- 
tion, which,  however,  is  daily  becoming  less  and  less 
probable,  the  markets  of  the  South  were  to  be  shut 
against  their  merchants  and  manufacturers  ;  if  the  sons  of 
the  farmers  and  their  hired  workmen  could  no  longer  have 
access  to  the  lands  and  growing  cities  of  the  West ;  if,  to 
crown  their  misery,  a  foreign  war  should  blockade  their 
harbours,  they  would  be  exposed  to  the  most  frightful 
convulsions.  The  Northern  States,  then,  must  remain 
indissolubly  wedded  to  the  Union  of  the  States,  and 
firmly  devoted  to  the  policy  of  peace  with  the  European 
monarchies. 

If,  then,  it  were  proved  that  there  was  an  irresistible 
necessity  for  a  distinction  of  ranks  in  every  society,  and 
that  the  principle  of  inheritance  or  sentiment  of  family  must 
be  one  of  the  constituent  principles  of  a  privileged  class, 
which  is  requisite  to  form  the  apex  of  the  social  pyramid, 
it  must  Jbe  acknowledged  that  the  prospect  of  the  North 
is  more  dark  and  alarming  than  that  of  the  South.  By 
the  exercise  of  unyielding  vigilance  over  the  slaves,  the 
South  may  continue  to  maintain  the  outward  forms  of  a 
regular  social  system.  It  would,  indeed,  be  a  retrograde 
system,  for  it  would  be  morally  a  copy  of  the  ancient 
order  of  society,  which  had  its  day  before  the  advent  of 
the  Christ,  patched  up  with  the  improved  material  order  of 
modern  times  ;  it  would  be  despotism,  but  an  orderly, 
organised  despotism,  which  after  all  would  be  a  less  ter- 
rible scourge  than  the  anarchy  which  threatens  the  North. 

Nevertheless,  whatever  may  be  the  destiny  of  aristo- 
cracy and  the  political  fate  of  the  family  sentiment,  I  am 


422  LETTER  XXXIII. 

loath  to  believe,  that  all  that  energy  and  intelligence  which 
I  have  witnessed  in  the  Northern  States  of  the  Anglo- 
American  Union,  can  be  swallowed  up  and  lost.  No 
deductions  of  logic  can  force  me  to  conclude,  that  a 
society,  superiour  to  any  that  has  yet  flourished  in  our 
ancient  continent,  will  not,  one  day,  and  that  soon,  exist 
in  the  fine  regions  on  the  east  and  the  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  around  the  wide  basin  of  the  great  lakes,  and 
along  the  far-stretching  banks  of  these  mighty  rivers.  It 
cannot  be  that  a  superiour  race  has  transported  its  children 
to  these  shores  to  devour  each  other.  If,  on  the  one  side, 
American  civilisation  seems  to  be  exposed  to  formidable 
dangers,  it  presents  itself  in  other  points  of  view,  with 
strongly  marked  features  of  permanency  and  stability.  If 
great  perils  encompass  its  cradle,  is  it  not  the  cradle  of  an 
infant  Hercules  ? 


LETTER  XXXIII. 

DEMOCRACY. 

NEW  YORK,  OCTOBER  22,  1835. 

OUR  old  European  societies  have  a  heavy  burden  to 
bear  ;  it  is  that  of  the  Past.  Each  age  is  the  guarantee  of 
the  acts  of  those  that  have  gone  before  it,  and  imposes  a 
similar  obligation  on  those  which  follow  it.  We  are  paying 
interest  on  our  fathers'  errors  ;  we  pay  it  in  the  first  place  un- 
der the  form  of  the  public  debt ;  we  pay  it  also  in  the  charges 
for  the  support  of  our  fine  army,  for  among  the  causes 
which  oblige  all  Europe  to  keep  the  flower  of  its  popula- 
tion under  arms,  we  must  reckon  the  animosities  of  our 
fathers.  We  pay  it,  and  at  a  higher  rate,  in  all  those 


DEMOCRACY.  423 

habits  of  distrust  and  suspicion,  which  have  been  be- 
queathed to  us  from  times  of  anarchy  and  despotism.  The 
accumulated  weight  of  a  long  Past  must,  indeed,  be  an 
insupportable  burden,  since  the  Roman  empire,  first  in 
Rome,  and  afterwards  in  Constantinople,  whither  it  was 
removed  to  escape  the  load,  crumbled  and  sunk  beneath 
it.  All  nations,  which  have  been  the  glory  of  the  world, 
have  been  ground  to  a  lifeless  dust,  like  the  ashes  of  the 
tombs,  by  the  pressure  of  a  Past,  which  hemmed  them 
in  on  every  side.  Will  the  Europe  of  our  age  undergo 
the  fate  of  its  predecessors  ?  There  is  reason  to  hope  that 
it  will  be  more  fortunate  ;  for,  having  their  example  before 
its  eyes,  it  must  be  wiser  than  they,  and  it  is  at  the  same 
time  more  pliant  in  its  temper,  and  more  elastic  in  its 
forms. 

One  of  my  friends,  some  time  ago  visiting  the  great 
iron- works  of  Crawshay  &  Co.,  in  Wales,  was  struck 
with  the  fact,  that  the  numerous  railroads  connected  with 
the  works,  were  constructed  on  an  old  and  very  imperfect 
system.  On  inquiring  the  reason,  and  observing  that  the 
saving  in  traction,  would  pay  the  expense  of  a  re-construc- 
tion with  the  improved  rail,  "  Nothing  is  more  just,"  lie  was 
told ;  "  but  we  retain  our  old  flat  rails,  and  we  shall  do  so 
for  a  long  time,  because  it  would  take  two  or  three  years 
to  make  a  change  ;  and  in  the  mean  while,  it  being  impos- 
sible to  keep  the  wagons  running  on  both  rails  at  the 
same  time,  we  should  have  to  stop  operations,  and  to  leave 
fifty  thousand  workmen  without  work  and  without  bread. 
The  difficulty  is  merely  in  the  transition,  but  at  present  it 
seems  to  be  insurmountable."  So  it  is  in  regard  to  society. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  one  system  has  decided  advantages 
over  another,  and  that  if  society  could  be  transported  from 
one  to  the  other  by  a  blow  of  the  wand,  much  would  be 
gained ;  but  between  the  two  there  is  a  great  gulf.  How 
can  it  be  passed  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  assure  vested 


424  LETTER  XXXIII. 

right,  to  which  nothing  seems  to  be  guarantied  on  the 
opposite  side  ?  How  overcome  the  opposition  of  the  privi- 
leged class,  who  resist  the  change  ?  How  check  the 
impatience  of  the  multitude,  eager  to  enter  into  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  benefits  which  it  expects  to  find  on  the  other 
shore  ? 

In  regard  to  social  reforms,  the  question  is  wonderfully 
simplified,  by  merely  transplanting  it,  that  is,  by  going 
into  new  countries  to  resolve  it.  The  old  country  is 
then  abandoned  to  old  interests  and  old  ideas,  and  the 
emigrant  lands  disengaged  and  unembarrassed,  ready 
to  undertake  every  thing,  and  disposed  to  try  every 
thing.  He  has  left  behind  him  in  the  mother-country  a 
thousand  associations  and  relations,  which  surround  exis- 
tence, and  give  it,  if  you  please,  its  ornaments  and  its 
charm,  but  which  also  tend  to  check  its  activity,  and  make 
society  slow  to  answer  the  demands  for  reform.  The  first 
of  all  innovations  is  the  change  of  soil,  and  this  necessarily 
involves  others.  Vested  rights  do  not  emigrate  ;  they  are 
bound  to  the  old  soil  ;  they  know  no  other,  and  no  other 
knows  them.  Privileges,  which  are  respected  because 
they  are  consecrated  by  time,  do  not  venture  upon  a  new 
soil,  or  if  they  hazard  the  trial,  they  cannot  become  accli- 
mated there.  A  colony  is  like  a  besieged  city ;  each  one 
must  serve  with  his  person ;  each  one  passes  only  for 
what  he  is  worth  personally.  In  a  society  which  has  no 
Past,  the  Past  counts  for  nothing. 

It  is  to  be  remarked,  therefore,  that  projects  of  social 
reform,  conceived  in  the  bosom  of  established  societies,  in 
which  opportunity  is  afforded  for  the  calm  exercise  of 
thought,  have  generally  been  obliged  to  be  transported  to 
other  shores,  and  to  take  root  in  barbarous  lands,  in 
order  to  be  carried  into  execution,  and  to  be  embodied 
under  the  form  of  a  new  society.  Civilisation  has  advan- 
ced from  the  East  toward  the  West,  increasing  in  vigour 


DEMOCRACY.  425 

at  every  remove,  although  the  founders  of  new  colonies 
have  generally  quitted  a  more  civilised  country  for  a  bar- 
barous one.  Thus  Italy  and  Greece,  daughters  of  Asia 
and  Egypt,  have  gone  beyond  their  mothers  ;  thus  west- 
ern Europe  has  eclipsed  the  glories  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
Soon  after  having  given  birth  to  the  new  nations,  the 
old  ones  have  perished  violently,  or  have  fallen  into  an 
obscurity  worse  than  death,  merely  from  a  want  of  will  or 
energy  to  apply  the  principles  which  gave  vigour  to  their 
offspring,  —  principles  of  a  new  social  order,  founded  on 
the  wider  extension  of  liberty  and  the  greater  diffusion  of 
privileges,  —  to  their  own  wants. 

Providence  had  done  much  to  prepare  the  European 
races,  when  transported  across  the  ocean,  for  becom- 
ing the  founders  of  great  and  powerful  nations.  The 
English-Americans,  who  were  the  last  comers,  and 
did  not  arrive  until  after  the  Spaniards  had  estab- 
lished their  dominion  over  equinoxial  and  southern 
America,  left  the  Old  World  only  after  it  had  been  aroused 
and  agitated  by  the  intellectual  revolution  of  which  Luther 
was  the  Mirabeau,  and  of  which  in  England,  Henry  VIII. 
was  the  Robespierre  and  the  Napoleon.  This  great  event 
had  already  sown  those  seeds  in  the  human  breast,  which 
were  to  swell  and  expand  through  succeeding  ages.  Eng- 
land was  already  big  with  those  habits  of  industry  and 
order,  which  were  destined  to  make  her  the  first  nation  of 
the  Old  World  in  the  sphere  of  industry  and  in  political 
greatness.  Her  children,  therefore,  carried  with  them  the 
germ  of  those  principles  and  institutions,  which  were  to 
secure  to  them  the  same  supremacy  in  the  New.  They 
embarked,  at  least  this  was  the  case  with  those  of  New 
England,  the  pilgrims,  the  fathers  of  the  Yankees,  after 
having  undergone  the  ordeal  of  fire  and  water,  after  having 
been  seven  times  tried  between  the  sledge  and  the  anvil, 
between  persecution  and  exile.  They  arrived  weaned  out 
54 


426  LETTER  XXXIII. 

with  political  quarrels,  and  bent  on  devoting  their  energies 
to  pacific  and  useful  purposes. 

They  seated  themselves  under  a  climate  which  differed 
little  from  that  of  their  native  skies.  Thus  they  escaped 
the  danger  of  becoming  enervated  by  the  influences  of  a 
warm  and  balmy  atmosphere,  like  that  in  which  the  fiery 
spirits  of  the  Castilian  race  were  tamed ;  they  landed  on 
an  almost  uninhabited  shore,  and  had  only  a  few  poor 
tribes  of  Red  Skins  for  enemies  and  neighbours,  whilst 
the  Spaniards  had  to  contend  with  the  numerous  armies 
of  the  brave  Aztecs  in  Mexico,  and  their  successors,  the 
Creoles,  have  had  to  keep  in  check  on  the  one  side  the 
Camanches  and  the  Indios  Bravos  of  the  north,  and  on 
the  other  the  Araucanians  of  the  southern  Cordilleras.  If 
the  English  had  encountered  a  numerous  population  like 
thart  which  resisted  Cortez,  they  would  have  had  to  con- 
quer it,  and  doubtless  they  would  have  succeeded  in  so 
doing  ;  but  after  the  victory,  they  would  have  been  obliged 
to  keep  it  in  subjection,  and  the  yoke  of  the  English  race  is 
harder  than  that  of  the  Spaniards.  Their  social  organisa- 
tion would  then  have  been  founded  on  the  servitude  of  the 
inferiour  castes,  red  and  mixed  ;  the  new  society  would 
have  been  tainted  with  a  deep-seated  disease,  which  would 
have  reduced  it  to  a  much  lower  state  than  European 
society,  and  have  sunk  it  to  the  level  of  ancient  communi- 
ties, which  were  founded  on  personal  slavery/  It  is  riot, 
indeed,  completely  free  from  this  taint  at  present ;  since 
negroes  have  been  brought  into  the  country,  and  twelve 
States  out  of  twentyfour  are  defiled  with  the  pollution  of 
slavery.  The  portion  of  the  country  which  has  been  left 
for  the  pure  white  race,  is,  however,  ample  enough  to 
receive  a  large  community  composed  of  the  same  materials 
with  the  European  nations,  and  affording  great  facilities 
for  combining  them  in  a  better  order. 

If  they  had  found  powerful  enemies  to  combat,  if  war 


DEMOCRACY.  427 

had  been  constantly  hanging  over  their  heads,  they  would 
have  been  obliged  to  submit  themselves  to  a  military 
aristocracy,  spite  of  the  instinct  of  self-government  and 
independence  which  runs  in  British  veins,  and  of  which 
they  had  a  double  share.  In  that  case,  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
can society  would  have  been  only  a  copy,  and  an  inferiour 
copy  of  the  English  ;  as  the  Canadians,  for  example,  were 
merely  an  imitation  of  the  French,  under  the  old  order  of 
things.  The  English  colonists  sometimes  had  to  repel 
the  attacks  of  the  French,  who  had  possession  of  the  west 
and  of  the  basin  of  the  St  Lawrence  ;  but  after  the  capture 
of  Quebec,  they  found  themselves  completely  delivered 
from  the  most  momentous  public  charge,  that  of  defending 
their  territory  and  their  independence.  They  were,  there- 
fore, able  to  dispense  with  a  military  establishment,  to 
turn  all  their  thoughts  and  energies  to  their  domestic  con- 
cerns, and  to  devote  themselves  exclusively  to  the  work  of 
colonisation.  They  ceased  to  stand  in  need  of  the  Eng- 
lish guardianship,  and  they  freed  themselves  from  it,  that 
they  might  expand  themselves  and  take  their  own  course 
without  let  or  hindrance.  Finally,  yielding  to  their  natural 
impulse,  they  tried  their  great  democratic  experiment, 
which  is  already  shedding  such  a  brilliant  light  upon  the 
prospect  of  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  lower 
classes  in  all  countries.  From  these  circumstances  and 
influences,  has  resulted  a  new  political  and  physiologi- 
cal phenomenon,  a  hitherto  unknown  variety  of  the  human 
race,  inferiour  to  the  English  and  French  types  in  many 
respects,  particularly  in  taste  and  philosophy,  but  superiour 
to  the  rest  of  the  human  family  by  its  extraordinary  com- 
bination of  sagacity,  energy  of  will  and  hardy  enterprise, 
by  its  admirable  aptitude  for  business,  by  its  untiring  de- 
votion to  work,  and  above  all  by  its  recognition  and  pro- 
tection of  the  rights  of  the  labouring  classes,  hitherto 
treated  as  the  offscourings  of  society. 


428  LETTER  XXXIII. 

It  seems,  then,  that  the  Americans  are  called  to  continue 
the  series  of  that  succession  of  progressive  movements 
which  have  characterised  our  civilisation  ever  since  it 
quitted  its  cradle  in  the  East.  This  people  will  become 
the  founders  of  a  new  family,  although  perhaps  the  fea- 
tures which  now  predominate  in  it  will  hereafter  cease  to 
be  the  prominent  traits  ;  whilst  the  Spanish- Americans 
seem  to  be  an  impotent  race,  which  will  leave  no  posterity 
behind  it,  unless  by  means  of  one  of  those  inundations 
which  are  called  conquests,  a  current  of  richer  blood  from 
the  North  or  the  East,  shall  fill  its  exhausted  veins. 

An  eminent  philosopher,  who  is  an  honour  to  the  French 
name,*  defines  the  progress  of  the  human  race  in  its  slow 
and  majestic  pilgrimage  round  our  globe,  by  the  term 
initiation.  Following  out  this  thought,  we  may  pro- 
nounce North  America,  at  least  the  nori-slave-holding 
States,  to  be  already  in  advance  of  us  ;  for,  in  many 
respects,  what  amongst  us  is  accessible  only  to  a  small 
number  of  the  elect,  has  become  common  property  in  the 
United  States,  and  is  familiar  to  the  vulgar.  The  con- 
quests of  the  human  mind,  to  which  the  Reformation  gave 
the  signal  and  the  impulse,  and  the  great  discoveries  of 
science  and  art,  which,  in  Europe  are  yet  concealed  from 
the  general  eye  by  the  bandage  of  ignorance  and  the  mists 
of  theory,  are,  in  America,  exposed  to  the  vulgar  gaze  and 
placed  within  the  reach  of  all.  There  the  multitude 
touches  and  handles  them  at  will.  Examine  the  population 
of  our  rural  districts,  sound  the  brains  of  our  peasants,  and 
you  will  find  that  the  spring  of  all  their  actions  is  a  con- 
fused medley  of  the  Bible  parables  with  the  legends  of  a 
gross  superstition.  Try  the  same  operation  on  an  Ameri- 
can farmer,  and  you  will  find  that  the  great  scriptural  tra- 
ditions are  harmoniously  combined,  in  his  mind,  with  the 

*  M.  Ballanche. 


DEMOCRACY.  429 

principles  of  modern  science  as  taught  by  Bacon  and  Des- 
cartes, with  the  doctrine  of  moral  and  religious  indepen- 
dence proclaimed  by  Luther,  and  with  the  still  more  recent 
notions  of  political  freedom.  He  is  one  of  the  initiated. 

Amongst  us  the  powerful  instruments  and  machinery  of 
science  and  art,  the  steam-engine,  the  balloon,  the  voltaic 
pile,  the  lightning-rod,  inspire  the  multitude  with  a  reli- 
gious dread.  In  France,  out  of  a  hundred  peasants  in  the 
recesses  of  our  provinces,  you  will  not  find  one,  who,  after 
having  witnessed  their  effects,  would  dare  to  lay  his  hand 
upon  them ;  they  would  fear  to  be  struck  dead,  like  the 
sacrilegious  wretch  who  touched  the  ark  of  the  Lord.  But 
to  the  American,  on  the  contrary,  these  are  all  familiar 
objects  ;  he  knows  them  all  by  name,  at  least,  and  he  feels 
that  they  are  his.  To  the  French  peasant  they  are  mys- 
terious and  terrible  beings,  like  his  fetisch  to  the  negro,  his 
manitou  to  the  Indian  ;  but  to  the  cultivator  of  the  west- 
ern wilds,  they  are,  what  they  are  to  a  member  of  the 
Institute,  tools,  instruments  of  labour  or  science  ;  again, 
therefore  he  is  one  of  the  initiated. 

There  is  no  profanum  vulgus  in  the  United  States,  at 
least  amongst  the  whites  ;  and  this  is  true  not  only  in 
regard  to  steam-engines  and  electrical  phenomena,  but  the 
American  multitude  is  also  much  more  completely  initia- 
ted than  the  European  mass,  in  all  that  concerns  the  do- 
mestic relations  and  the  household.  The  marriage  tie  is 
held  more  sacred  amongst  the  lowest  classes  of  American 
society,  than  among  the  Middle  Class  of  Europe,  Al- 
though the  marriage  ceremony  has  fewei  forms  than 
amongst  us,  and  the  connexion  is  more  easily  dissolved,* 
cases  of  adultery  are  extremely  rare.  The  unfaithful 


*  As  in  some  of  the  States  there  is  no  law  of  divorce,  the  legislatures  grant 
it  in  virtue  of  their  legislative  omnipotence.  Out  of  less  than  150  acts  pas- 
sed by  the  New  Jersey  legislature  in  1836,  thirteen  were  acts  authorising 
divorces. 


430  LETTER  XXXIII. 

wife  would  be  a  lost  woman  ;  the  man,  who  should  seduce 
a  woman,  or  should  be  known  to  have  an  illicit  connexion, 
would  be  excommunicated  by  the  popular  clamour.  In 
the  United  States,  even  the  man  of  the  labouring  class  is 
more  completely  initiated  in  the  obligations  of  the  stronger 
sex  toward  the  weaker,  than  most  of  the  men  of  the 
Middle  Class  in  France.  Not  only  does  the  American 
mechanic  and  farmer  spare  his  wife,  as  much  as  possible, 
all  the  hard  work  and  employments  unsuitable  to  the  sex, 
but  he  exhibits  towards  her  and  every  other  woman,  a 
degree  of  attention  and  respect,  which  is  unknown  to 
many  persons  amongst  us,  who  pride  themselves  on 
their  education  and  refinement.  In  public  places  and 
in  the  public  conveyances,  in  the  United  States,  no 
man,  whatever  may  be  his  talents  and  his  services, .is 
treated  /with  any  particular  attention  ;  no  precedence  or 
privilege  is  allowed  him  ;  for  all  men  are  equal.  But  a 
woman,  whatever  may  be  the  condition  and  fortune  of  her 
husband,  is  sure  of  commanding  universal  respect  and 
attention.* 

In  political  affairs,  the  American  multitude  has  reached 
a  much  higher  degree  of  initiation  than  the  European 
mass,  for  it  does  not  need  to  be  governed  ;  every  man 
here  has  in  himself  the  principle  of  self-government  in 
a  much  higher  degree,  and  is  more  fit  to  take  a  part  in 


*  In  the  mail-coaches,  the  best  seats  are  always  yielded  to  women,  with- 
out regard  to  the  order  in  which  the  names  are  booked.  The  husband  also 
does  the  marketing  and  often  brings  home  the  provisions  himself.  Nothing 
is  more  common  than  to  see  men  carrying  home  a  goose  or  a  turkey  by  the 
legs,  or  a  basket  of  fruit.  I  have  before  observed  that  the  conjugal  and 
social  submission  of  the  woman  is  more  complete  in  the  United  States  than 
in  France.  In  Fran  •<>,  a  woman  engages  in  business,  and  with  the  consent 
of  her  husband  is  acknowledged  as  a  responsible  agent ;  but  there  is  nothing 
of  this  sort  in  England  and  the  United  States.  Our  children  in  Canada 
have  even  gone  beyond  us  in  this  respect,  and  have  admitted  females  to  the 
electoral  franchise. 


* 


DEMOCRACY.  431 

public  affairs.  It  is  also  more  fully  initiated  in  another 
order  of  things,  which  are  closely  connected  with  politics 
and  morals,  that  is,  in  all  that  relates  to  labour.  The 
American  mechanic' is  a  better  workman,*  he  loves  his 
work  more,  than  the  European.  He  is  initiated  not 
merely  in  the  hardships,  but  also  in  the  rewards,  of  indus- 
try :  he  dresses  like  a  member  of  Congress  ;  his  wife  and 
daughters  are  dressed  like  the  wife  and  daughters  of  a  rich 
New  York  merchant,  and  like  them,  follow  the  Paris 
fashions.  His  house  is  warm,  neat,  and  comfortable  ;  his 
table  is  almost  as  plentifully  provided  as  that  of  the  wealthi- 
est of  his  fellow  citizens.  In  this  country,  the  articles  of- 
the  first  necessity  for  the  whites,  embrace  several  objects, 
which,  amongst  us,  are  articles  of  luxury,  not  merely 
among  the  lower,  but  among  some  of  the  middle  classes. 
The  American  multitude  is  more  deeply  initiated  in 
what  belongs  to  the  dignity  of  man,  or,  at  least,  to  their 
own  dignity,  than  the  corresponding  classes  in  Europe. 
The  American  operative  is  full  of  self-respect,  and  he 
shows  it  not  only  by  an  extreme  sensibility,  by  pretensions 
which  to  the  European  bourgeoisie  would  appear  extra- 
ordinary^ and  by  his  reluctance  to  make  use  of  the  term 
master,  for  which  he  substitutes  that  of  employer,  but  also 
by  good  faith  and  scrupulous  exactness  in  his  engagements  ; 


*  The  English  workman  is  very  skilful.  Although  in  certain  branches 
we  excel  the  English,  it  appears  to  me  incontestable,  that  at  present  the 
English  workman  is  the  first  in  Europe.  In  some  respects,  he  is  also  supe- 
riour  to  the  American ;  he  will,  for  example,  finish  a  particular  piece  of 
work  in  a  better  style,  but  when  out  of  his  special  sphere,  and  separated  from 
the  tools  of  the  English  workshops,  which  are  of  a  superiour  kind,  he  will 
be  at  loss.  The  American  workman  has  a  more  general  aptitude ;  his 
sphere  is  larger,  and  he  can  extend  it  indefinitely  at  will.  He  accomplishes 
at  least,  as  much  as  the  English  workman,  and  when  he  devotes  himself  for 
a  long  time  to  the  same  task,  which  is  not  usual  with  him,  he  does  it  better. 

t  Thus  a  shoemaker  or  tailor  will  not  go  to   a  customer's  house  to  take  a 
measure,  but  requires  all,  women  and  men,  to  come  in  person  to  his  shop. 


432  LETTER  XXXIII. 

he  is  above  those  vices  of  slavery,  such  as  theft  and  lying, 
which  are  so  prevalent  amongst  hirelings  with  us,  particu- 
larly amongst  those  of  the  towns  and  their  manufactories.* 
The  French  operative  is  more  respectful  and  submissive 
in  his  manners,  but  hard-pressed  by  poverty,  and  surround- 
ed by  temptations,  he  rarely  neglects  a  chance  of  cheat- 
ing his  bourgeois,  when  he  can  do  it  with  impunity. 
The  operative  of  Lyons  practises  the  piquage  donees ; 
those  of  Rheims  secrete  the  gold  lace.f  There  are,  doubt- 
less, frauds  committed  in  America  ;  more  than  one  smart 
fellow  has  his  conscience  oppressed  with  numerous 
peccadilloes.  How  many  strolling  Yankee  pedlers  have 
sold  charcoal  for  indigo,  and  soapstone  for  soap  to  the  rural 
housewives  !  But  in  the  United  States  these  petty  frauds 
are  rare  exceptions.  The  character  of  the  American 
workman  is  in  a  high  degree  honourable,  and  excites  the 
envy  of  the  European  when  he  compares  the  prospect  here 
presented  to  him  with  the  aspect  of  things  in  his  own 
country.^ 

*  In  the  relations  between  the  master  and  the  operative,  the  most  de- 
plorable usages  prevail  in  our  large  manufacturing  towns.  Many  of  the 
masters  are  reduced  to  practise  the  most  disgraceful  artifices  on  their  work- 
men, in  order  to  sustain  themselves  against  the  violence  of  competition ; 
thus,  in  some  workshops  and  factories,  the  hands  of  the  clock  are  put  for- 
ward in  the  morning  and  backward  in  the  evening.  The  operatives  com- 
mit reprisals  in  every  possible  manner. 

f  The  piquage  d'onces,  or  secretion  of  silk  by  the  workmen,  is  one  of  the 
cankers  of  Lyons.  The  value  of  the  silk  thus  stolen  is  estimated  at  nearly 
one  million  of  dollars  a  year  ;  the  thefts  committed  in  the  Rheims  factories  are 
stated  to  exceed  600,000  dollars.  The  operatives  exchange  the  gold-lace  at 
the  dram-shops  for  about  one  fourth  of  its  actual  value. 

+  The  domestics  in  the  United  States  are  almost  everywhere  much  infe- 
riour  to  the  operatives,  personal  service  being  here  looked  upon  as  degrad- 
ing. In  many  of  the  States  the  domestics  will  not  bear  to  be  called  servants, 
and  take  thatofAe/p;  this  is  the  case  in  New  England.  The  domestic  is 
there  a  hired  agent  whose  task  is  light,  and  who  in  many  houses  takes  his 
meals  with  the  family.  On  these  conditions,  native  servants  may  be  had  in 
New  England  who  are  attentive  and  intelligent ,  they  stand  upon  their 


DEMOCRACY.  433 

What  has  been  said  above  applies  still  more  strongly  to 
the  farmer ;  not  being  obliged,  like  the  operative,  daily  to 
contest  the  rate  of  his  wages  with  an  employer,  surrounded 
by  his  equals,  and  a  stranger  to  the  seductions  of  the  city, 
the  American  farmer  possesses  the  good  qualities  of  the 
operative  at  least  in  an  equal  degree,  and  has  his  faults  in 
a  much  less  degree.  He  is  less  unjust  and  less  jealous 
towards  the  richer  or  more  cultivated  classes. 

If  then  we  examine  the  condition  of  the  American  mul- 
titude, we  find  it,  taken  as  a  whole,  to  be  much  superiour 
to  that  of  the  mass  in  Europe.  It  is  true  that  it  appears  to 
be  almost  completely  destitute  of  certain  faculties,  which 
are  possessed  by  the  European  populace.  There  are,  for 
instance,  at  times,  a  hundredfold  more  gleams  of  taste  and 
poetical  genius  in  the  brain  of  the  most  beggarly  lazza- 
rone  of  Naples,  than  in  that  of  the  republican  mechanic  or 
farmer  of  the  New  World.  The  houseless  young  vaga- 
bonds of  Paris  have  transient  flashes  of  chivalric  feeling 
and  greatness  of  soul,  which  the  American  operative  never 
equals.  This  is  because  the  national  character  of  the 
Italians  is  impregnated  with  a  love  of  art,  and  that  gene- 
rous sentiments  are  one  of  the  distinguished  ^traits  of  the 
French  character,  and  the  very  lowest  classes  of  each 
nation  have  some  portion  of  the  national  spirit.  But  it  does 
not  belong  to  the  multitude  to  be  poets  and  artists,  in  Italy, 
or  models  of  chivalry,  in  France.  Their  perfection,  above 
all  and  in  every  country,  consists  in  knowing  and  fulfil- 


rights,  and  expect  to  be  treated  with  respect  by  their  employers,  but  they 
perform  their  duties  with  an  honourable  fidelity.  In  most  of  the  non-slave- 
holding  States,  the  servants  are  chiefly  free  blacks,  who  are  generally  lazy 
and  depraved,  or  newly  arrived  emigrants  from  Ireland,  who  are  ignorant 
and  without  skill,  prone  to  be  most  provokingly  familiar,  and  in  the  intoxi- 
cation of  their  new  condition,  so  different  from  the  squalid  misery  they 
have  left  behind  them,  more  disposed  to  take  airs  upon  themselves,  than  the 
natives  of  the  country. 

55 


434  LETTER  XXX III. 

ling  their  duties  to  God,  to  their  country,  to  their  families, 
to  themselves,  in  assiduous  and  honest  industry,  in  being 
good  citizens,  good  husbands,  and  good  fathers,  in  providing 
for  the  welfare  and  guarding  the  virtue  of  those  dependent 
upon  them.  In  order  to  make  a  fair  comparison  between 
the  multitude  in  Europe  and  the  multitude  in  America, 
we  should  consider  them  in  reference  to  these  qualities ;  for 
these  belong  to  all  varieties  of  the  human  race  and  all  forms 
of  civilization,  and  upon  their  development  and  stability  in 
the  greatest  number,  depends  the  strength  of  empires. 
To  render  the  parallel  between  the  two  hemispheres  per- 
fect, it  would  be  necessary  to  set  against  the  mechanic 
and  the  farmer  in  the  United  States,  the  members  of  a 
corresponding  class  among  a  people  of  Teutonic  origin, 
language,  and  religion,  that  is,  the  English  operative  and 
farmer.  European  civilisation,  setting  aside  the  Sclavoni- 
ans,  who  have  recently  appeared  with  brilliant  success 
upon  the  stage,  divides  itself  into  two  branches,  that  of 
the  North,  and  that  of  the  South,  one  Teutonic,  the  other 
Latin,  distinguished  by  different  qualities  and  tendencies. 
American  society,  being  a  scion  of  one  of  these  branches, 
can  be  more  readily  compared  with  it,  than  with  any  of  the 
offsets  of  the  other.  It  is  easy,  therefore,  to  determine  the 
superiority  of  the  American  mechanic  and  farmer  to  those 
of  England,  but  it  is  difficult  to  decide  how  much  inferiour 
or  superiour  any  class  of  American  society  is  to  the  corres- 
ponding Spanish,  Italian,  or  French  class ;  it  is  only  ne- 
cessary, however,  to  open  one's  eyes  to  be  convinced,  that 
the  multitude  among  these  three  people  are  far  from  hav- 
ing reached,  in  the  direction  in  which  nature  points  their 
career,  the  same  degree  of  progress  that  the  Americans 
have  done  in  theirs. 

The  American  democracy  certainly  has  its  faults,  and  I 
do  not  think  that  I  can  be  accused  of  having  extenuated 
them.  I  have  not  concealed  its  rude  demands  upon  the 


DEMOCRACY.  435 

higher  classes,  nor  its  haughty  airs  of  superiority  to  other 
nations.  I  will  even  admit,  that,  in  many  respects,  it  is 
rather  as  a  class,  and  in  the  lump  that  it  recommends  itself 
to  favour ;  for  the  individuals  that  compose  it,  are  desti- 
tute of  those  hearty  and  affectionate  qualities,  by  which 
our  French  peasantry  would  be  distinguished,  if  it  were 
once  delivered  from  the  wretchedness  which  now  brutifies 
it ;  but  it  is  in  the  mass  and  as  a  whole,  that  I  now  judge 
the  American  multitude. 

The  American  democracy  is  imperious  and  overbearing 
towards  foreign  people ;  but  is  not  a  keen  sensibility,  a 
good  quality  rather  than  a  defect  in  a  young  nation  as  in 
a  young  man,  provided  that  it  is  backed  by  an  energetic 
devotion  to  a  great  work  ?  Pride  is  ridiculous  in  an  ener- 
vated and  inert  people,  but  in  an  enterprising,  active,  vig- 
ourous  nation,  it  is  consciousness  of  power,  and  confidence 
in  its  high  destiny.  The  foreign  policy  of  .the  American 
democracy  is  profoundly  egoistic,  for  national  ambition  is 
the  characteristic  of  a  growing  nation.  Cosmopolitanism 
is  generally  a  symptom  of  decline,  as  religious  tolerance  is 
a  sign  that  faith  is  on  the  decay.  The  pretensions  of  the 
United  States  are  unbounded  :  they  aspire  to  the  sover- 
eignty over  South  America ;  they  covet  one  by  one  the 
provinces  of  Mexico  ;  but  in  spite  of  the  rules  of  morality, 
it  is  might  which  makes  right  in  the  relations  between 
people  and  people.  If  the  United  States  should  wrest  the 
Mexican  provinces  from  the  Spanish  race,  partly  by  craft 
and  partly  by  force,  they  would  be  responsible  to  God  and 
to  man  for  the  consequences  of  the  robbery  ;  but  they 
would  not  be  alone  guilty.  If  the  country  which  they  had 
seized,  flourished  in  their  hands,  posterity  would  pardon  the 
act ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  condemn  the  Mexi- 
cans, if,  with  such  neighbours  at  their  doors,  they  should 
continue  as  at  present,  to  stagnate  in  stupid  security  and  in 


436  LETTER  XXXIII. 

a  miserable  lethargy,  and  the  powers  of  Europe,  if  they 
neglected  to  warn  them  and  to  rouse  them  from  their  torpor. 

The  Romans  were  intolerably  arrogant  towards  other 
people  ;  they  spoke  to  the  all-powerful  sovereigns  of  the 
monarchical  East,  and  to  the  heirs  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
that  brutal  and  imperious  language,  which  General  Jackson 
has  flung  into  the  face  of  a  monarchy  of  fourteen  centuries. 
They  treated  all  who  stood  in  the  way  of  the  gratification 
of  their  insatiable  thirst  for  conquest,  as  slaves  who  had  re- 
volted against  the  divine  will.  That  Punic  faith,  with  the 
charge  of  which  they  branded  the  memory  of  their  rivals, 
was  often  the  only  faith  which  they  practised.  Posterity, 
however,  has  proclaimed  them  the  greatest  people  of 
history,  because  they  were  successful ;  that  is,  because  they 
formed  a  durable  empire  out  of  conquered  nations  by  the 
wisdom  of  their  laws.  The  Anglo-Americans  have  much 
resemblance  to  the  Romans  whether  for  good  or  for  evil. 
I  do  not  ssy  that  they  are  destined  to  become  the  masters 
of  the  world ;  I  merely  mean  to  affirm  that  by  the  side  of 
faults  which  shock  and  offend  foreign  nations,  they  have 
great  powers  and  precious  qualities  which  should  rather 
attract  our  attention.  It  is  by  these  that  posterity  will 
judge  them  ;  by  these  they  have  become  formidable  to 
other  people.  Let  us  aim  to  get  the  vantage-ground  of 
them,  not  by  denouncing  their  defects  to  the  world,  but 
by  endeavouring  to  make  ourselves  masters  of  their  good 
qualities  and  their  valuable  faculties,  and  by  cultivating 
and  developing  our  own.  These  are  the  surest  means  of 
maintaining  our  rank  in  the  world  in  spite  of  them  and  in 
spite  of  all. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  American  democracy  conducts 
itself  more  and  more  haughtily  abroad,  it  is  jealous  of  all 
who  fall  under  the  suspicion  of  seeking  to  encroach  upon 
its  sovereignty  at  home.  In  this,  it  only  imitates  the  most 
boasted  of  aristocracies.  The  system  which  it  has  pursued 


DEMOCRACY.  437 

towards  the  higher  classes,  is  dictated  by  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation,  just  as  that  of  the  European  aristocracy 
and  Middle  Class  toward  the  classes  respectively  below 
them,  has  been  instinctive  with  them.  The  democracy  is 
determined  to  lose  none  of  its  conquests,  which  have  been 
gained,  not  by  plundering  its  neighbours,  not  by  pillaging 
provinces,  not  by  robbing  travellers,  but  by  the  sweat  of 
its  brow,  by  its  own  resolute  industry.  Who,  then, 
amongst  us  will  cast  the  first  stone  at  it  ?  I  can  readily 
conceive,  that,  at  first  sight,  we  of  the  Middle  Class  in 
Europe,  should  be  offended  by  its  pretensions,  and  that  we 
should  feel  our  sympathy  excited  by  the  spectacle  of  our 
American  fellows  conquered  and  bound.  But  let  us,  nev- 
ertheless, confess,  that  this  democracy  has  managed  the 
affairs  of  the  New  World  in  such  a  manner  as  to  justify  the 
supremacy  it  has  won.  and  to  excuse  its  jealousy  towards 
every  thing  that  might  have  a  tendency  to  spoil  it  of  its 
conquest.  This  is  the  first  time  since  the  origin  of  society, 
that  the  people  have  fairly  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  their 
labours,  and  have  shown  themselves  worthy  of  the  pre- 
rogatives of  manhood.  Glorious  result !  Even  though  it 
has  been  obtained  by  the  temporary  humiliation  of  the 
classes  with  which  our  education  and  habits  lead  us  to 
sympathise,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  good  man  to  rejoice  at 
it,  and  to  thank  God  for  it ! 

Wo  to  tyranny  by  whomsoever  exercised !    Far  be  it 
from  me  to  apologise  for  the  brutal  and  savage,  and  some- 
times bloody  excesses,   which  have  lately  been  so  often 
repeated  in  most  of  the  large  towns  in  the  United  States ! 
Should  they  be  continued,  the  American  democracy  will 
be  degraded  and  will  lose  forever  the  high  position  it  now 
occupies.     But   criminal  as  these  acts  are,    it  would  be 
unjust  to  impute  them  to  the  American  people,  and  to  con 
demn  to  ignominy  the  whole  body  of  these  incomparabl 
labourers.     Popular  excesses  in  all  countries  are  the  work 


438  LETTER  XXXIII. 

of  an  imperceptible  minority,  which  the  existing  system 
in  the  United  States  is  sufficient  to  restrain.  That  sys- 
tem needs,  then,  some  amendment,  which  shall  suit  it  to 
preserve  the  good  qualities  of  the  nation  in  their  purity, 
and  which,  indeed,  seems  already  on  the  point  of  being 
introduced,  for  theories  of  absolute  liberty  are  evidently 
losing  favour  in  the  United  States. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  infer  from  what  has  been  said, 
that  the  American  civilisation  is  superiour  to  our  own. 
The  multitude  in  the  United  States  is  superiour  to  the 
multitude  in  Europe  ;  but  the  higher  classes  in  the  New 
World  are  inferiour  to  those  of  the  Old,  although  the  mer- 
its of  the  latter  are  rather  virtual  than  real,  and  belong 
rather  to  the  past  or  the  future  than  to  the  present ;  for 
the  higher  classes  in  Europe,  both  aristocracy  and  bour- 
geoisie, turn  their  good  qualities  to  little  account,  whether 
on  behalf  of  themselves  or  the  people.  The  higher 
classes  in  the  United  States,  with  some  exceptions  and 
taken  as  a  whole,  have  the  air  and  attitude  of  the  van- 
quished ;  they  bear  the  mark  of  defeat  on  their  front. 
As  they  have  been  always  and  in  almost  all  circum- 
stances much  mingled  with  the  crowd,  both  parties 
have  naturally  borrowed  many  habits  and  feelings  from 
each  other.  This  exchange  has  been  advantageous 
to  the  multitude ;  but  less  so  the  higher  classes.  The 
golden  buckler  of  the  Trojan  has  been  exchanged  for  the 
leather  shield  of  the  gallant  Diomed.  Each  of  the  two  is, 
therefore,  superiour  in  one  of  the  two  great  elements  of 
society,  and  inferiour  in  the  other.  This  is  the  system  of 
compensation. 

If,  then,  from  the  superiority  of  the  labouring  classes  in 
the  United  States,  it  were  necessary  to  draw  a  conclusion 
as  to  the  relative  rank  of  European  and  American  civilisa- 
tion in  the  future,  the  following  would  be  the  only  neces- 
sary inference  :  in  order  that  American  society  should  have 


DEMOCRACY.  439 

the  advantage  of  ours,  it  would  be  requisite  that  it  should 
comprise  a  class,  which,  intrinsically  and  in  its  exterior, 
should  be  as  much  elevated  above  the  people,  properly  so 
called,  as  our  higher  classes  are  above  the  great  mass  of 
our  population ;  or,  in  other  words,  it  depends  upon  our- 
selves to  give  to  our  social  order  the  advantage  over  that 
of  the  United  States,  by  raising  our  lower  class  both  of  the 
towns  and  the  country  from  the  ignorance  and  brmal  de- 
gradation in  which  they  are  plunged,  and  developing  their 
powers  and  qualities  in  conformity  with  our  national  dispo- 
sition and  the  character  of  the  race  to  which  we  belong. 


NOTES.. 

NOTE  1  —  page  26. 

Use  of  Iron. 

ONE  must  go  to  England  to  appreciate  the  value  of  iron,  the 
scarcity  of  wood  having  obliged  the  English  to  apply  it  to  a 
%  great  number  of  purposes  to  which  no  one  on  the  continent 
would  dream  of  its  being  applicable.  At  every  step  and  under 
all  forms,  you  meet  with  cast-iron,  bar-iron,  sheet-iron,  and 
steel ;  machines,  piles,  columns  of  all  dimensions  from  two 
inches  to  four  feet  in  diameter,  water-pipes  and  gas-pipes,  posts, 
grates,  bridges,  roofs,  floors,  whole  quays  and  roads,  of  iron. 
But  for  it,  those  light  and  airy  structures,  so  slender  in  appear- 
ance, yet  supporting  such  enormous  weights,  the  huge  six  story 
warehouses  of  St  Catharine's  docks  for  instance,  would  be  heavy 
and  gloomy  dungeons.  The  gas  which  comes  from  a  distance 
of  seven  or  eight  miles,  is  made  and  brought  in  by  the  aid  of  iron. 
Those  bridges,  springing  as  it  were  across  the  water,  those 
graceful  and  elegant  footways  across  the  canals,  as  well  as  the 
fluted  columns  of  Regent's  Street,  are  of  iron,  cast  or  wrought. 
The  quantity  of  pig-iron  annually  produced  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  is  about  800,000  tons  ;  in  France  it  amounted  in  1834 
to  269,000  tons,  beside  177,000  tons  of  bar  iron.  The  ordinary 
price  of  both  kinds  with  us  is  about  double  the  price  in  England. 
Until  the  present  day,  stone  has  been  almost  the  only  material 
employed  in  durable  works  of  architecture  ;  but  stone  having 
much  less  cohesive  force  than  iron,  is  only  suited  to  the  Egyp- 
tian, Greek,  and  Roman  styles  of  architecture.  The  light  and 
airy  architecture  of  the  Middle  Ages,  requires  a  material  pos- 
sessing great  strength  in  a  small  compass,  such  as  the  metals  ; 
and  some  attempts  have  already  been  made  in  France  and  Ger- 
56 


442  NOTES. 

many  to  apply  cast-iron  to  the  construction  of  Gothic  structures. 
Stone  has  already  done  all  that  it  is  capable  of  doing,  and  we 
can  have  nothing  new  in  architecture,  except  by  means  of  new 
materials.  In  my  opinion,  iron  is  to  be  the  instrument  of  this 
regeneration  of  the  architectural  art.  The  price  of  pig-iron  is 
now  so  low,  that  the  cost  of  a  building  of  this  material,  would 
not  exceed  that  of  one  constructed  of  hewn  stone. 


NOTE  2 —  page  26. 

Quantity  of  Coal  mined  in  France,  England,  and  Belgium. 

Mr  McCulloch,  in  his  Dictionary  of  Commerce  estimates  the 
quantity  of  coal  annually  mined  in  England  to  amount  to 
16,000,000  tons.*  The  extensive  inquiries  of  M.  Le  Play,  who 
has  carefully  examined  all  the  English  coal-fields,  have  led  him 
to  estimate  it  much  higher  ;  it  does  not,  probably,  fall  short  of 
30,000,000  tons,  of  which  5,000,000  are  consumed  in  the  iron 
manufacture.  Mr  McCulloch  estimates  the  amount  of  capital 
employed  in  the  coal-trade  at  10,000,000  pounds,  and  the  num- 
ber of  persons  engaged  in  it  at  from  160,000  to  180,000. 
Other  estimates  carry  this  last  number  to  206,000,  of  whom 
121,000  work  in  the  mines. 

In  France  2,500,000  tons  of  coal  were  raised  in  1834,  and 
about  18,000  persons  were  employed  in  the  mines.  France 
also  imports  coal  from  Belgium  and  England.  Next  to  Eng- 
land, Belgium  furnishes  the  largest  quantity  of  coal ;  the  three 
great  coal-fields  of  Mons,  Charleroi,  and  Liege  with  some  small- 
er basins,  yielding  about  3,200,000  tons  annually. 


*  In  a  later  work  (Statistics  of  the  British  Empire,  1839),  Mr  McCulloch  esti- 
mates it  at  26,188,000  tons.  —  TRANSL. 


NOTES. 


443 


NOTE  3  —  page  33. 

Value  of  Exports  of  Domestic  Produce  and  Manufactures  from 
England,  France,  and  United  States,  from  1820  to  1835. 


Years. 

France. 

England. 

United  States. 

1820 

francs.  543,100,000 

fr.  910,600,000 

fr.  275,400,000 

1821 

450,700,000 

917,500,000 

232,700,000 

1822 

427,600,000 

925,000,000 

265,800,000 

1823 

427,100,000 

890,000,000 

251,300,000 

1824 

505,800,000 

960,000,000 

269,900,000 

1825 

543,800,000 

972,500,000 

356,800,000 

1826 

461,000,000 

787,500,000 

282,700,000 

1827 

506,800,000 

930,000,000 

314,000,000 

1828 

511,200,000 

920,000,000 

270,000,000 

1829 

504,200,000 

895,000,000 

296,800,000 

1830 

452,900,000 

955,000,000 

316,900,000 

1831 

455,500,000 

930,000,000 

326,600,000 

1832 

507,400,000 

921,000,000 

336,500,000 

1833 

559,400,000 

992,500,000 

374,700,000 

1834 

509,360,000 

1,041,000,000 

432,100,000 

1835 

577,400,000 

1,184,200,000 

539,700,000 

England  exports  hardly  any  but  manufactured  articles.  The 
United  States  export  chiefly  raw  produce.  Raw  Cotton  forma 
half  of  the  value  of  their  exports,  as  manufactured  cotton  forms 
about  half  of  those  of  Great  Britain.  Agriculture  furnishes  three 
fourths  or  four  fifths  of  the  exports  of  domestic  articles  from  the 
United  States,  and  manufactures,  only  one  tenth.  Above  two 
thirds  of  the  exports  of  France  are  manufactures,  and  nearly 
one  third,  agricultural  produce, 


Ports. 
London    - 
New  York   - 
Boston 
Newcastle    - 
Liverpool 
Sunderland  - 
Philadelphia 
New  Orleans 
New  Bedford 


NOTE  4  —  page  36, 

Shipping. 

tonnage  belonging  to  the  principal  ports  of 
the  United  States  in  1835. 

Tonnage.  Ports.  Tonnage. 

566,152  Whitehaven    -  -         65,878 

•  376,697           Hull  ....    63,524 
226,041  Bordeaux        -  -        69,690 

.    208,100  Marseilles  -        -         -     68,314 

207,833  Havre     -        -  -        68,070 

•  132,070  Portland  (U.  S.)          -    57,666 

86,445  Baltimore        -  -        54,416 

•  79,467            Nantes       -         -        -    51,528 
76,533  Bristol     -        -  -       42,913 


444  NOTES. 

To  render  the  comparison  exact,  it  would  be  necessary  to  de- 
duct one  fourth  from  the  French  tonnage,  in  order  to  allow  for  the 
different  modes  of  measurement.  The  French  method  is  mathe- 
matically more  correct,  but  it  lays  our  vessels  under  the  disad- 
vantage of  being  obliged  to  pay  heavier  tonnage  dues  ;  but  a 
law  of  1836  has  authorised  the  government  to  make  a  Change  in 
this  respect. 

Out  of  1,824,000  tons  of  shipping  entered  and  cleared  at  the 
French  ports  in  $1835,  only  31  per  cent,  was  French  shipping  ; 
out  of  5,025,000  tons  entered  and  cleared  at  the  British  ports, 
75  per  cent,  was  of  English  vessels.  In  the  United  States,  from 
1817  to  1830,  foreign  shipping  formed  less  than  15  per  cent,  of 
the  vessels  in  the  foreign  trade  ;  in  1831,  it  was  26  per  cent., 
and  in  1832,  30  per  cent.,  leaving  70  per  cent,  for  the  American 
shipping. 

French  navigation  is  in  a  deplorable  state  of  feebleness,  and 
the  evil  increases  daily.  In  1832,  the  total  amount  of  French 
shipping  was  670,000  tons,  of  British  2,225,000,  of  American 
1,440,000.  In  France  and  England  the  amount  varies  little 
from  year  to  year,  but  in  the  United  States  it  increases  rapidly, 
and  in  1837  it  was  1,896,685. 


NOTE  5  —  page  38  —  omitted. 


NOTE  6  —  page  38. 

All  the  banks  in  the  United  States,  like  the  Bank  of  France  in 
Paris,  are  at  once  banks  of  discount  and  loan,  and  banks  of  de- 
posit and  circulation.  Almost  the  whole  currency  of  this  coun- 
try consists  of  paper-money,  the  metals  being  chiefly  in  the 
the  vaults  of  the  banks,  which  cannot  dispense  with  them,  be- 
cause their  bills  are  payable  on  demand  in  gold  and  silver. 

The  old  Bank  of  the  United  States,  founded  in  1791,  had  a 
capital  of  ten  million  dollars,  the  Federal  government  holding 
one  fifth  of  the  stock.  The  present  Bank  was  incorporated  in 


NOTES.  445 

1816,  with  the  right  of  establishing  any  number  of  branches.  The 
Bank  of  England  also  has  branches  in  Manchester,  Birmingham, 
Liverpool,  Leeds,  Gloucester,  Bristol,  Hull,  Newcastle,  Norwich, 
Swansea,  and  Exeter.  The  Bank  of  France  has  but  two 
branches,  one  at  St.  Etienne  and  the  other  at  Rheims,  both  estab- 
lished since  1836. 

The  capital  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  is  35,000,000, 
in  350,000  shares  of  100  dollars  each.  That  of  the  Bank  of 
Bngland  is  11,000,000  pounds,  divided  into  shares  of  one  hun- 
dred pounds ;  and  that  of  the  Bank  of  France  is  90,000,000 
francs,  in  shares  of  1000  francs,  of  which  22,100  are  held  by 
the  Bank  itself.  The  United  States'  Bank  stock  was  at  a  pre- 
mium of  25  to  30  per  cent,  before  General  Jackson  began  his 
war  upon  it,  that  of  the  Bank  of  France  is  at  an  advance  of  129 
per  cent.,  and  that  of  the  Bank  of  England  at  116  per  cent, 
advance. 

The  operations  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  consist  in 
discounting  commercial  paper  with  two  names,  in  making  ad- 
vances upon  public  stock  and  other  securities,  and  in  trading  in 
the  precious  metals.  The  Bank  of  France  discounts  commer- 
cial paper  with  three  names,  or  with  two  names  and  a  deposit  of 
Bank  stock  as  collateral  security.  It  is  at  present  authorised  to 
advance  four-fifths  on  public  stock  on  the  sole  guarantee  of  the 
depositor.  It  also  makes  advances  on  deposits  of  bullion  and  for- 
eign coins,  charging  a  commission  of  one  eighth  for  fortyfive  days, 
or  one  per  cent,  a  year.  The  commercial  attributes  of  the  Bank  of 
England  are  still  more  limited  than  those  of  the  Bank  of  France. 
It  makes  no  advances  on  public  securities,  except  while  the  trans- 
fer books  are  closed,  which  occurs  for  a  certain  period  in  London. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  discounts  at  the  rate  of  six  per 
cent.  ;  the  Bank  of  France  at  four  per  cent. ;  and  the  Bank  of 
England  at  different  rates,  but  rarely  at  less  than  four  per  cent., 
which  is  high  in  London.  In  1836,  the  rate  was  advanced  to 
four  and  a  half  and  five  per  cent.  The  Bank  of  the  United 
States  effects  foreign  and  domestic  exchanges ;  the  Bank  of 
England  only  domestic  exchange,  which  it  does  without  charge 
for  those  who  have  an  account  open  with  it ;  and  the  Bank  of 
France  operates  neither. 


446  NOTES. 

The  circulation  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  has  varied 
within  late  years  from  ten  to  twenty  millions  ;  in  October  1835, 
it  was  twentyfive  millions,  consisting  chiefly  of  five  and  ten  dol- 
lar notes.  Of  late  years  the  circulation  of  the  Bank  of  England 
has  amounted  to  about  100  million  dollars.  Since  1830,  the 
Bank  of  France  has  usually  had  a  circulation  of  forty  millions, 
so  that  the  two  last  institutions  play  a  more  important  part  as 
banks  of  circulation,  than  the  first.  In  the  United  States,  the 
five  or  six  hundred  local  banks,  whose  aggregate  circulation  is 
five  or  six  times  greater  than  that  of  the  United  States'  Bank, 
perform  this  service.  This  coexistence  of  more  than  five  hun- 
dred distinct  currencies  is  the  great  defect  in  the  financial  system 
of  this  country.  The  joint-stock  banks,  which  have  been  of  late 
much  multiplied  in  England,  tend  to  introduce  the  same  con- 
fusion into  that  country. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  has  generally  in  its  vaults 
about  ten  millions  in  specie,  but  during  the  struggle  with  Gene- 
ral Jackson,  it  had,  at  times,  a  sum  equal  to  its  bills  in  circula- 
tion, or  from  sixteen  to  eighteen  millions.  The  Bank  of  England 
endeavours  to  keep  on  hand  from  forty  to  fifty  millions,  but  it 
sometime  sinks  as  low  as  thirty.  The  Bank  of  France  always 
has  at  least  twenty  and  sometimes  more  than  forty  millions ;  in 
1832,  it  had  fiftythree  millions,  or  more  than  its  whole  pap/er 
circulation. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  does  not  discount  notes  of 
above  four  months'  date,  although  this  restriction  is  voluntary  ; 
the  great  mass  of  its  discounts  is  on  paper  of  two  months  date. 
The  Banks  of  France  and  England  cannot  discount  bills  of  more 
than  90  days  date. 

The  bills  of  the  United  States  Bank  circulate  throughout  the 
Union ;  the  revenue  officers  are  obliged  to  receive  them  on  the 
same  footing  as  specie.  The  Bank,  in  return,  is  obliged  to 
redeem  them  in  specie  on  demand,  under  penalty  of  paying  inter- 
est on  the  sum  demanded  at  the  rate  of  12  per  cent,  per  annum, 
and  of  forfeiting  its  charter.  It  is  not,  however,  bound  to 
redeem  the  bills  of  the  branches,  except  at  their  respective  coun- 
ters, although  it  does  so  in  fact.  The  bills  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 


NOTES.  447 

land  are  a  legal  tender  in  England,  and  with  the  exception  of 
those  of  the  branches,  are  redeemable  in  gold  and  silver  only  in 
London.  The  bills  of  the  Bank  of  France  are  current  only  in 
Paris,  and  are  not  there  a  legal  tender. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  and  the  Bank  of  France  only 
issue  bills  payable  to  bearer.';  the  Bank  of  England  has  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  Bank  post-bills,  or  bills  payable  to  order  at  sev- 
en days  sight,  being  equivalent  to  about  one  tenth  or  one  twelfth 
of  its  whole  circulation. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  receives  deposits,  on  which  it 
pays  no  interest.  The  Scotch  banks  pay  interest  on  deposits  at 
the  rate  of  2  to  2i  per  cent.  The  Banks  of  England  and  France 
do  not  pay  interest  on  deposits,  but  the  latter  gets  bills  on  Paris 
cashed  for  its  depositors  without  charge. 

The  number  of  accounts  current  opened  by  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  is  indefinite  ;  in  that  country  and  Scotland  almost 
all  persons  have  an  account  with  the  banks,  and  are  thus  freed 
from  the  necessity  of  keeping  any  considerable  sums  on  hand. 
They  hardly  keep  enough  in  the  house  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
the  household  for  a  few  days,  and  payments  are  made  by  checks 
on  a  bank.  The  banks  are,  therefore,  the  cashiers  of  the  whole 
community.  This  concentration  of  the  whole  disposable  fund  of 
the  country  in  the  banks,  gives  them  the  means  of  extending  their 
operations  greatly,  and  renders  the  capital,  which  would  other- 
wise be  scattered  about  and  lie  idle,  active  and  productive. 

The  dividends  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  have  been  reg- 
ularly at  the  rate  of  seven  per  cent. ;  those  of  the  Bank  of 
France  vary  from  eight  to  ten  on  the  original  capital ;  those  of 
the  Bank  of  England  are  at  present  eight  per  cent,  on  the  nomi- 
nal capital,  which  is  the  original  capital  successively  modified 
by  acts  of  parliament.  Independently  of  the  ordinary  dividends, 
which  were  originally  seven  per  cent.,  afterwards  rose  to  ten, 
and  are  now  eight,  the  Bank  of  England  has  made  several  ex- 
traordinary dividends,  and  it  increased  the  nominal  capital  on 
which  the  dividend^  are  paid,  twentyfive  per  cent,  in  1816.  Mr 
McCulloch  makes  the  total  sum  of  the  extraordinary  dividends 
and  of  the  reserved  profits  carried  to  the  extension  of  the  capital, 
from  1799  to  1832,  eighty  two  millions,  which  with  the  reimburse- 


448  NOTES. 

merits  required  by  the  new  charter,  amounts  to  one  hundred  and 
five  millions.  The  Bank  of  France  has  divided  beyond  its  ordi- 
nary dividends,  the  sum  of  four  and  a  half  millions. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States,  previous  to  1834,  was  charg- 
ed with  the  keeping  of  the  public  moneys,  which  were  remitted 
to  it  by  the  collectors  and  reccivers'.and  of  which  it  was  the  le- 
gal depository,  with  the  transfer  of  funds  for  the  service  of  the 
Treasury,  and  with  the  payments  on  the  public  debt  and  of  pen- 
sions. Tt  is  forbidden  to  lend  more  than  500,000  dollars  to  the 
Federal  government,  and  more  than  50,000  to  any  State.  In 
this  respect  it  differs  from  the  Banks  of  France  and  England, 
which  make,  and  especially  once  made,  enormous  advances  to 
the  state.  This  is  the  principal  object  of  the  Bank  of  England, 
the  whole  capital  of  which  is  lent  to  the  government  at  the  rate 
of  three  per  cent.  Besides  this  the  Bank  of  England  receives 
the  Exchequer  Bills,  and  the  Bank  of  France  the  Treasury  Cer- 
tificates (bons  du  Tresor),  which  bear  a  low  rate  of  interest. 
These  banks  have  made  inconceivable  loans  to  the  state  in  time 
of  war  ;  in  1814,  the  advances  of  the  Bank  of  England  amount- 
ed to  165  millions,  inclusive  of  the  public  deposits,  which  some- 
times amounted  to  60  millions.  The  Bank  of  France,  however, 
has  at  present  little  connexion  with  the  government,  and  has,  there- 
fore, greatly  extended  its  commercial  operations.  In  1836,  it 
had  on  hand  notes  to  the  value  of  27  million  dollars,  without 
reckoning  four  millions  advanced  on  deposits  of  public  funds ; 
from  1830  to  1835  the  amount  had  not  exceeded  seventeen 
millions. 

The  local  or  State  banks  in  the  United  States  are  organized 
on  principles  analogous  to  those  of  the  National  Bank.  They 
are  incorporated  companies,  receiving  their  corporate  privileges 
from  the  States,  and,  therefore,  confined  to  the  limits  of  the 
State.  Sometimes  their  bills  are  not  current  out  of  the  town  or 
county  in  which  they  are  situated.  They  are  institutions  of 
credit  and  circulation  almost  exclusively  for  the  use  of  merchants. 
Not  having  the  resource  of  exchanges,  and  rarely  having  any 
deposits,  they  aim  to  enlarge  their  profits,  by  extending  their  cir- 
culation through  excessive  discounts  and  loans,  which  often  floods 
the  country  with  an  excess  of  paper  money.  Their  capitals  sel- 


NOTES.  449 

dom  exceed  one  million  dollars,  and  are  often  much  less  ;  but 
several  have  lately  been  established  in  the  South  with  capitals 
of  from  three  to  ten  millions. 

In  England  the  private  bankers  have  the  right  of  emitting  bills 
payable  to  bearer,  except,  if  there  are  less  than  six  partners  in 
the  house,  within  the  distance  of  sixty  miles  of  London  ;  in  point 
of  fact  there  are  none  issued  within  that  space.  The  bills  issued 
by  private  bankers  amount  to  about  8,500,000  pounds.  In 
Paris,  the  Bank  of  France  has  the  exclusive  privilege  of  issuing 
bills  payable  to  bearer. 

The  joint  stock  banks  in  England  are  not  chartered  compa- 
nies, nor  are  they  under  any  control.  All  the  partners  are  perso- 
nally responsible.  These  country  banks  are  very  numerous,  and 
they  offer,  perhaps,  less  security  than  the  American  State  banks. 
In  all  times  of  crisis,  in  1792-93,  1814-15-16,  1825-26,  many  of 
them  have  become  bankrupts  or  suspended  payment ;  in  1816, 
240  were  obliged  to  take  one  of  these  alternatives.  In  1809 
their  issues  amounted  to  24  million  pounds;  in  1821-23,  they 
had  fallen  eight  millions,  and  in  1825,  had  again  risen  to  four- 
teen millions.  Since  the  suppression  of  notes  of  less  than  five 
pounds,  they  have  been  much  reduced.  At  present  (1836), 
these  institutions  are  becoming  multiplied  to  such  a  degree  as  to 
inspire  serious  alarm  in  prudent  men. 


NOTE  7  —  page  49. 
Failures  in  the  United  States. 

It  would  be  excessively  unjust  to  the  Americans  not  to  ac- 
knowledge that  they  are  improving  daily  in  respect  to  failures. 
In  a  new  country  it  is  natural  that  a  failure  should  be  little  thought 
of,  because  every  thing  is  necessarily  an  experiment,  and  all 
speculation  is  a  game  of  hazard.  The  public  is  very  indulgent 
on  this  point,  because  it  considers  a  failure  what  it  really  is, 
nineteen  times  out  of  twenty,  a  misfortune  and  not  a  fraud. 
The  bankrupt  is  looked  upon  as  a  wounded  soldier,  who  is  to  be 
treated  with  sympathy,  and  not  with  contempt.  Congress  has  the 
57 


450  NOTES. 

power  of  passing  a  bankrupt  law,  but  it  has  not  yet  exercised 
this  power,  and  the  different  States  have  made  temporary  pro-, 
visions  for  the  case,  which  treat  the  insolvent  debtor  with  great 
indulgence,  discharging  him  from  any  further  obligation  towards 
his  creditors  on  his  giving  up  all  his  property  for  their  benefit, 
It  is  felt  that  too  much  severity  in  regard  to  failures  would  have 
the  tendency  to  check  the  spirit  of  enterprise,  which  is  the  life  of 
the  country.  None  of  those  rigourous  provisions  which  disgrace 
French  legislation  and  endanger  the  interests  of  creditors,  exist 
here ;  and  if  the  lenity  of  the  laws  is  sometimes  abused,  the 
inconvenience  is  much  less  than  that  caused  by  the  harshness  of 
ours. 

In  the  large  maritime  towns,  however,  it  is  felt,  that  if  bank- 
ruptcy is  not  a  disgrace,  it  is  at  least  a  private  and  public  calami- 
ty, which  is  to  be  averted  by  every  exertion.  The  history  of  the 
great  fire  in  New  York  in  1835  affords  ample  proof  of  this. 
The  amount  of  the  loss  exceeded  fifteen  millions,  and  the  insu- 
rance companies  found  themselves  unable  to  meet  their  engage^ 
ments.  On  the  receipt  of  the  news  in  Europe,  there  was  not 
a  merchant  who  did  not  tremble  for  his  American  debts  ;  for  in 
Europe,  in  general,  and  in  France,  in  particular,  such  an  event 
would  have  deprived  the  sufferers  of  all  credit,  of  all  means  of 
repairing  their  losses.  In  France  the  singular  custom  prevails  of 
offering  you  credit,  if  you  do  not  need  it ;  but  if  you  stand  in 
want  of  it,  you  will  get  none.  In  the  United  States,  on  the  con- 
trary, immediately  after  this  disaster,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  Bank  hastens  to  place  two  millions  at  the  disposal  of  the 
New  York  merchants,  and  the  banks  in  general  give  out  that 
they  shall  discount  the  paper  of  the  sufferers  in  preference. 

Although  the  sphere  of  the  public  authorities  in  the  United 
States  is  very  narrow,  the  corporation  of  New  York  and  the 
State  government,  rivalled  each  other  in  offers  of  assistance  ; 
the  former  offered  an  advance  of  six  millions,  not  to  individuals, 
as  was  done  in  France  in  1830,  but  to  the  insurance  companies, 
whose  ruin  would  have  led  to  a  general  bankruptcy  ;  it  thus 
strengthened  tfce  hands  of  commerce,  by  relieving  its  citadel. 
Even  Congress,  which  is  not  allowed  to  take  a  step  out  of  its  lit- 
tle district,  and  is  scarcely  permitted  to  notice  what  is  going  on 


NOTES.  451 

beyond  the  Capitol,  was  moved,  and  extended  the  term  of  pay- 
ment of  custom  dues.  The  result  of  this  admirable  cooperation 
of  individuals,  companies,  and  public  authorities  was  to  prevent 
any  considerable  failures. 

The  Americans  have  a  courage  in  presence  of  commercial 
disasters,  like  that  of  the  soldier  on  the  field  of  battle.  In  a  crit- 
cal  juncture,  they  face  bankruptcy,  as  old  grenadiers  march  upon 
a  battery  under  a  fire  of  grape-shot.  If  it  is  true  that  commerce 
is  to  supplant  war  in  the  future,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
Americans  are  more  advanced  on  the  march  than  we  are  ;  for 
they  have  applied  all  their  energies  and  qualities  to  commerce, 
whilst  we  still  devote  ours  to  war.  They  have  discovered  a  new 
sort  of  courage  which  produces  and  enriches ;  we  shine  only  by 
that  courage  which  perishes  or  destroys. 

The  merit  of  this  new  spirit  does  not  belong  exclusively  to  the 
Americans ;  they  had  the  germ  in  their  blood,  and  have  receiv- 
ed the  gift  from  the  mother  country.  At  the  period  of  the  late 
calamity,  the  English  were  no  more  subject  to  a  panic  terrour 
than  their  New  York  descendants. — It  is  within  my  knowledge, 
that  American  merchants  established  in  Paris  and  having  houses 
in  the  United  States,  having  applied  to  London  bankers  for  a 
continuation  of  credit,  were  immediately  assured,  that  not  only 
the  former  amount  of  credit  should  be  continued,  but  that  they 
should  be  allowed  an  unlimited  credit  in  order  to  enable  them  to 
repair  their  losses.  Some  French  bankers,  on  the  contrary, 
similarly  situated,  hastened  to  cut  off  the  credit  they  had  pre- 
viously given. 

In  a  country  organized  for  commerce,  and  having  the  proper 
institutions  of  credit,  the  money  and  merchandise  of  the  mer- 
chant, are  not  his  only  capital ;  the  most  valuable  part  of  his 
capital  consists  of  his  experience,  his  correspondents  and  con- 
nexions, the  weight  of  his  name.  This  constitutes  a  moral 
capital,  which  conflagrations  cannot  destroy,  nor  accidents  of 
any  kind  injure.  In  New  York,  by  the  aid  of  this  moral  capi- 
tal, on  which  a  high  value  is  set  in  commercial  countries,  a  mer- 
chant who  has  not  property  to  the  amount  of  more  than  50,000 
dollars,  operates  as  if  he  had  five  or  six  times  as  much.  In 
Paris,  the  same  man,  with  the  same  fortune,  would  operate  with 


452  NOTES. 

only  about  twice  as  much.     Thus  the  wealth  of  the  United  States 
increases  in  a  much  faster  ratio  than  in  France. 


NOTE  8  —  page  54. 

The  American  newspapers  are  vcjy  numerous,  but  in  con- 
sequence of  their  great  number  their  circulation  iscompara- 
tively  small.  There  are  few  daily  papers,  whose  circulation  ex- 
ceeds 2,000,  and  not  one,  which  exceeds  4,000  ;  that  of  most  of 
the  newspapers  is  not  more  than  400  or  500.  The  American 
newspapers  have  little  resemblance  to  the  French  and  English. 
They  are  chiefly  mere  advertising  sheets ;  they  do  not  direct 
public  opinion,  they  follow  it.  This  local  character  does  not  al- 
low of  their  having  much  influence  out  of  their  particular  district. 
In  New  York,  only  the  city  newspapers  are  read ;  in  New  Or- 
leans, those  of  New  Orleans  are  the  only  ones  generally  seen ; 
whilst  in  France  those  of  Paris,  and  in  England  those  of  London 
are  read  every  where.  The  Globe  and  the  National  Intelligen- 
cer of  Washington  are,  however,  pretty  generally  circulated. 
Newspapers  in  the  United  States  are  not  powers,  they  are  mere 
instruments  of  publicity  within  the  reach  of  all.  They  are  con- 
sulted for  the  news,  nor  for  opinions.  The  profession  of  a  wri- 
ter does  not  stand  so  high  in  England  as  in  France,  and  is  less 
honourable  in  the  United  States,  than  in  England.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  a  very  few  newspapers,  at  the  head  of  which  are  the 
New  York  American  edited  by  Charles  King,  and  the  Philadel- 
phia National  Gazette,  edited  by  Robert  Walsh,  the  American 
press  occupies  a  low  rank  in  the  social  scale. 

Notwithstanding  their  large  size,  the  American  newspapers 
are  low-priced  ;  the  cause  is  plain  enough  ;  the  profits  are 
derived  chiefly  from  advertisements,  and  the  expenses  of  editing 
are  inconsiderable,  as  there  is  generally  but  one  editor.  There 
is  no  stamp  duty  ;  but  the  postage  on  them  is  higher  than  in 
France.*  The  circulation  of  some  of  the  French  newspapers 


*  The  postage  of  newspapers  in  France  is  two  fifths  of  a  cent  within  the  de- 
partment where  it  is  published,  and  four  fifths  on  any  distance  beyond  it. 


NOTES.  453 


exceeds  10,000  ;  and  some  cheap  publications  have  lately  had  a 
circulation  of  90,000  or  100,000. 


NOTE  9  —  page  53. 

In  1832,  the  transfer  of  funds  between  different  points  of  the 
Union,  or  between  the  Union  and  foreign  countries,  effected  by 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  amounted  to  255  millions,  of 
which  241,718,710  was  for  domestic,  and  13,456,737  for 
foreign  transactions.  The  Bank  received  only  217,249  dollars 
for  commissions  on  this  vast  sum. 


NOTE  10  —  page  64. 

Specie  and  Paper  Money. 

The  quantity  of  gold  and  silver  coined  in  France  with  the  new 
die,  amounted,  up  to  1836,  to  about  750  million  dollars,  of  which 
three  fourths  were  in  silver.  It  is  not  probable  that  more  than 
one  fourth  of  that  sum  has  been  melted  and  exported ;  there 
would-  then  remain  about  550  millions.  A  part  of  this  immense 
sum  is  out  of  circulation,  and  is  buried  in  the  coffers  of  individu- 
als or  in  the  pockets  of  the  poor,  who  do  not  dare  trust  their  sav- 
ings to  any  person  or  institution. 

In  the  United  States,  in  1834,  the  405  local  banks  from  which 
official  or  semi-official  statements  had  been  received,  had  65  mil- 
lion dollars  paper  in  circulation,  and  14,250,000  dollars  in  specie 
in  their  vaults.  There  were  beside,  101  banks,  estimated  to  have 
in  circulation  12,650,000  dollars  of  paper,  and  2,825,000  dollars 
in  specie  on  hand.  The  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  at  that 
time  a  circulation  of  10,300,000  dollars,  and  specie  to  the 
amount  of  13,865,000  dollars.  The  whole  currency  of  the 
United  States,  exclusive  of  the  small  amount  of  specie  in  the 
hands  of  individuals,  amounted,  therefore,  to  88  millions  in 
paper  and  specie.  At  this  time,  the  banks  had  withdrawn  a 
large  amount  of  their  bills  from  circulation,  their  issues  before 


454  NOTES. 


the  war  on  the  Bank  having  exceeded  100  millions.  Since  1834, 
the  amount  of  specie  in  the  United  States  has  been  considerably 
increased,  several  of  the  States  having  prohibited  the  emission  of 
bills  of  less  than  five  dollars,  a  measure,  which  would  tend  to 
promote  the  use  of  the  metals. 

The  following  statement,  showing  the  quantity  of  paper  money 
in  circulation  in  the  United  Kingdom  at  the  end  of  1833,  is 
chiefly  from  McCulloch's  Dictionary  of  Commerce. 

Of  Bank  of  England  £19,500,000 
Of  Branches  of  do.       -  3,300,000 

Of  Private  Bankers  -     8,500,000 
Of  English  Country  Banks  -  1,500,000* 

Of  Scotch  Banks     -  -     2,000,000 
Of  Irish  Banks     -         -         -  7,500,000 

Total  42,300,000 

At  the  same  time  the  amount  of  the  precious  metals  in  circu- 
lation and  in  the  banks,  was  estimated  at  45,800,000  pounds,  of 
which  seven  millions  were  in  silver. 


NOTE  lit  —  page  96.     Cherokees  and  other  Indians.    Omitted. 
NOTE  12t  —  page  98.     Public  Lands.     Omitted. 


NOTE  13t  —  page  119.     Temperance  Societies.     Omitted. 


NOTE  14  —  page  132. 

Cotton  Manufacture. 
At  the  end  of  1836,  the  Lowell  cotton  factories  comprised 

*  In  August  1336,  this  had  been  increased  to  3,600,000  pounds, 
t  These  notes,  with  several  others,  have  been  omitted,  as  they  contain  merely 
statements  familiar  to  most  readers  in  this  country. 


NOTES.  455 

129,828  spindles  and  4,197  looms,  and  employed  6,793  opera- 
tives of  whom  5,416  were  women.  The  quantity  of  cloth  made 
was  849,300  yards  a  week,  or  at  the  rate  of  44  million  yards  a 
year  ;  raw  cotton  consumed  38,000  bales,  or  15  million  pounds 
yearly. 

In  1831,  the  American  manufacture  employed  62,157  opera- 
tives, of  whom  38,927  were  women  and  4,691  children.  There 
were  beside  4,760  hand-weavers,  40,709  persons  employed  in 
accessory  labours,  making  the  whole  number  of  persons  engaged 
directly  and  indirectly  117,626.  The  factories  contained 
1,246,503  spindles,  and  33,506  looms,  and  produced  230,46 1,990 
yards  of  stuffs,  besides  1,200,000  pounds  of  yarn,  which  were 
woven  in  families  during  the  winter.  The  consumption  of  raw 
cotton  was  77  million  pounds.  The  value  of  the  products  was 
26  million  dollars,  eleven  millions  of  which  were  paid  in  wages. 
(Pitkiri's  Statistics,  526.) 

There  were  in  England,  in  1834,  according  to  Baines,  (His- 
tory of  Cotton  Manufacture,)  100,000  power-looms,  and 
250,000  hand-looms.  The  difference  between  the  number  of 
the  hand-looms  in  England  and  the  United  States  deserves  to  be 
noticed.  The  hand-weavers  in  '.Great  Britain  form  one  of  the 
most  wretched  classes  of  the  population.  The  English)  factories 
employed  729,000  persons,  or  with  the  dyers,  bleachers,  meas- 
urers, folders,  packers,  &c.,  and  all  hands  employed  in  building 
and  repairing  the  mills,  1,500,000.  In  1833  the  English  facto- 
ries consumed  332  million  pounds  of  cotton.  The  value  of  their 
annual  products  is  estimated  at  from  30  to  34  million  pounds 
sterling ;  the  wages  of  the  724,000  operatives  amount  to  13 
millions. 

In  1834,  the  French  manufacture  employed  600,000  persons, 
and  the  annual  value  of  its  products  was  about  110  million  dol- 
lars ;  quantity  of  cotton  consumed  100  million  pounds.  If  these 
statements  are  correct,  it  follows,  that  our  operatives  produce 
less  than  the  English  or  Americans, 


456 


NOTES. 


NOTE  15  — page  186. 

Production  and  Consumption  of  Cotton. 

In  1834,  one  of  our  most  able  manufacturers,  M.  Koekhlin, 
made  the  following  estimate  of  the  production  and  consumption 
of  cotton  throughout  the  world. 

Production. 


In  the  United  States 

In  India     ... 

In  Brasil 

In  Bourbon,  Cayenne,  &c.  - 

In  Egypt  and  the  Levant 

Total 

Consumption. 

In  England  - 

In  France 

In  the  United  States 

In  China  - 

In  Switzerland,  Belgium,  &c.   - 


-  437,500,000  Ibs. 

75,000,000 

-  30,000,000 

7,500,000 

-  25,000,000 


575,000,000 


375,000,000  Ibs. 

100,000,000 
45,000,000 
37,500,000 
42,500,000 


Total,  600,000,000 

Several  other  countries  not  enumerated  above  yield  cotton. 
China  produces  some  which  she  consumes,  or  exports  under  the 
form  of  nankeens  ;  Mexico  produces  nearly  enough  for  her  own 
consumption  ;  Mr  Koekhlin  has  meant  to  speak  only  of  what  be- 
longs to  the  general  commerce.  He  has  somewhat  overstated 
the  consumption  of  England,  and  underrates  that  of  the  United 
States. 


NOTE  16  —  page  154 — omitted. 


NOTE  17  —  page  161. 

Trial  of  the  Incendiaries  for  burning  the  Ursuline  Convent. 
The  intolerant  spirit  of  a  part  of  the  Protestant  population  was 


NOTES.  457 

offended  by  the  sight  of  the  Ursuline  Convent  on  Mount  St.  Ben- 
diet,  within  the  limits  of  Charlestown,  a  town  adjoining  Boston. 
The  sisters  devoted  themselves  to  the  instruction  of  young  girls, 
and  many  Protestant  families  had  confided  daughters  to  their 
care.  Every  thing  proves  that  they  were  by  no  means  devour- 
ed by  a  spirit  of  proselytism.  In  the  beginning  of  August,  1835, 
a  report  got  about  in  Charlestown,  that  one  of  the  sisters,  a  young 
woman,  was  detained  in  the  convent  by  force.  The  Selectmen 
of  the  town  had  a  meeting,  five  of  them  went  to  the  convent, 
which  they  examined  from  cellar  to  garret,  had  an  interview 
with  the  sister  who  was  represented  as  a  victim  of  the  Catholic 
discipline,  and  became  satisfied  that  she  was  there  of  her  own 
free  will.  This  conviction  was  made  known  to  the  public.  But 
on  the  night  of  August  12th,  the  convent  was  surrounded  and  at- 
tacked by  a  handful  of  ruffians,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  one 
John  Buzzell,  a  brickmaker,  noted  for  his  brutal  character. 
The  sisters  were  driven  from  the  convent  with  violence  ;  every 
thing  was  plundered ;  the  tombs  of  the  dead  were  forced  open. 
The  building  was  then  fired ;  it  was  burnt  in  sight  of  the  Se- 
lectmen ;  the  Boston  firemen  hastened  to  the  spot,  but  were  re- 
pulsed by  the  populace  by  main  force. 

Several  men,  taken  in  the  act,  were  arrested,  and  among 
others  Buzzell ;  they  were  tried  in  Boston  in  1835.*  The  wit- 
nesses were  afraid  to  bear  testimony,  a  mysterious  influence  had 
changed  their  language ;  the  public  prosecutor,  who  had  pre- 
viously demanded  in  vain  a  postponement  of  the  trial,  until  the 
causes  which  instigated  the  violence  had  been  traced,  pleaded 
the  cause  of  order  with  a  generous  indignation.  All  the  prison- 
ers were  acquitted,  except  one  poor  youth  of  the  name  of  Marcy 
who  was  sentenced  to  fifteen  or  twenty  years  imprisonment ; 
but  public  opinion  soon  after  obliged  the  Executive  to  grant  him 
a  pardon.  Buzzell  and  Kelly,  one  of  his  accomplices,  became 
heroes  ;  they  were  carried  about  in  triumph,  and  a  subscription 
was  made  for  their  benefit.  The  sisters  petitioned  the  Massachu- 

*  The  author  is  mistaken ;  they  were  tried  in  the  county  in  which  the  offence 
was  committed.  Boston  is  in  a  different  county.  TBANSL. 

58 


458  NOTES. 

setts  legislature  for  indemnity ;  the  most  intelligent  citizens  of 
Boston  interested  themselves  in  their  favour,  but  the  House  of 
Representatives  rejected  the  petition  by  a  large  majority.  On 
the  anniversary  of  the  outrage,  the  populace  of  Charlestown  cel- 
ebrated it  as  a  day  of  rejoicing,  and  got  up  a  shooting  match,  the 
target  being  a  representation  of  the  lady  superior  of  the  convent. 
The  Selectmen  succeeded  in  suppressing  the  figure,  but  not  the 
procession.  Finally,  to  crown  these  deeds  of  impudence  and 
savage  violence,  two  of  the  incendiaries,  in  1836,  presented  a 
petition  to  the  legislature  to  be  indemnified  for  the  damages  they 
had  suffered  by  the  trial.  The  committee  to  whom  the  petition 
was  referred,  reported  a  grant  of  500  dollars  to  each  of  these 
wretches  ;  but  to  the  honor  of  Massachusetts,  their  report  was  re- 
jected on  the  second  reading. 


NOTE  18 — page  172.     Omitted. 


NOTE  19  —  page  180.     Omitted. 

NOTE  20— page  193. 
Taxation. 

It  has  repeatedly  been  made  a  question  of  late,  whether  the 
United  States  were  more  or  less  heavily  taxed  than  France. 
The  subject  may  be  considered  under  several  points  of  view. 
The  systems  of  Taxation  in  the  two  countries  are  very  differ- 
ent. The  taxes  in  the  United  States  are  less  numerous 
then  they  are  in  France,  and  are  differently  distributed.  The 
country  population,  that  is  the  great  majority,  pay  much  less  in 
the  United  States  than  in  France  ;  but  in  the  large  towns  the  in- 
habitants pay  nearly  as  much  as  with  us,  except  in  Paris.  The 
disproportion  between  the  two  countries  becomes  much  greater, 
if  instead  of  estimating  the  amount  in  money,  we  give  it  in  day's 
labour,  which  is  the  most  rational  manner.  The  day-wages  of 


NOTES.  459 

a  labourer  being  about  threefold  as  much  in  the  United  States  as 
they  are  with  us,  and  other  things  being  in  the  same  proportion, 
it  follows,  that,  in  the  former,  a  tax  of  three  dollars  to  three  dollars 
and  a  half,  which  is  about  the  general  average,  is  not  more  burden- 
some to  the  mass  of  the  people,  than  a  tax  of  one  third  that  sum 
would  be  in  France.  The  average  tax  in  France,  or  six  dollars  a 
head,  is  equivalent  to  twentysix  days'  work  in  our  country ;  while 
the  average  in  the  United  States  is  only  equivalent  to  four  days' 
work  in  that  country. 

It  is  true,  thaf,  amongst  us,  all  the  public  expenditures  are 
comprised  in  the  budget ;  all  our  taxes  amount  to  190  million 
dollars.  But  in  the  United  States,  there  are  various  expenses 
supported  by  individuals  and  companies,  which  do  not  appear 
in  the  sum  of  the  public  taxes.  Toll  is  paid  on  a  very  large 
number  of  roads  :  public  worship  is  maintained  at  the  expense 
of  the  worshippers  ;  hence  heavy  charges  on  the  rich. 

It  is  important  to  remark,  that  the  public  revenue  in  the  United 
States  is  almost  wholly  employed  in  a  productive  manner,  in 
useful  undertakings,  in  public  works,  schools,  and  various  kinds 
of  improvements.  There  is  no  Federal  debt,  that  of  most  of  the 
States  and  towns  is  inconsiderable,  there  are  no  retiring  pensions, 
and  the  army  is  small ;  whilst  more  than  half  of  our  budget,  or 
118  million  dollars,  is  devoted  to  the  charges  on  the  public  debt, 
pensions,  and  the  sea  and  land  forces,  we  cannot  expect  to  re- 
store the  balance  in  our  favour,  because  we  cannot  dismiss  our 
soldiers,  nor  declare  a  national  bankruptcy  ;  but  we  might  di- 
minish our  present  inferiority  (paradoxical  as  it  may  seem),  by 
adding  some  millions  to  our  budget  for  useful  and  productive 
works. 

The  military  service  itself  is  a  public  burden  and  a  very  heavy 
one  ;  but  it  is  difficult  to.  rate  the  amount  of  this  in  money.  In 
France  it  takes  one  man  out  of  eighty  inhabitants  from  labour, 
but  in  the  United  States  only  one  out  of  2,300,  This  tax  might 
be  lightened,  by  employing  the  army  in  public  works. 

We  may  also  notice  the  two  following  differences,  which  ap- 
pear to  me  essential  ones,  between  American  and  French 
taxes  :  — 


460  NOTES. 

1.  The  American  taxes,  whether  it  be  from  the  mode  of  their 
assessment,  or  from  the  difference  of  conditions  of  the  two  coun- 
tries, never   press  heavily    upon  the  itaxables,  nor  give  them 
any  uneasiness ;  they  never  embarrass  transactions  nor  interrupt 
business.     On   the  contrary,   amongst  us  the  tax  is  often   an 
oppressive  burden  ;    our  registry  dues,  and  excise  on  property 
changing   hands,  often  occasion    serious  embarrassments   and 
even  insurmountable  obstacles  in  the  way  of  enterprise. 

2.  In  the  United  States  the  treasury  fears  to  incur  the  public 
odium  ;    amongst  us  the  most  respectable  citizens  are  subjected  to 
the  most  vexatious  treatment ;    our  officers  of  the  customs  have 
adopted  practices  unworthy  of  a  civilised  people  ;  our  wives  and 
daughters  must  submit  to  be  searched  in   the  most  shameless 
manner  by  vile  hags,  and  these  brutal  proceedings  have  not  the 
poor  excuse  of  being  useful  to  the  customs.     Their  avowed  ob- 
ject is  to  prevent  the  smuggling  of  articles,  with  which,  in  spite 
of  three  lines  of  custom-house  officers,  the  country  is  inundated, 
and  which  it  is  well  known  are  brought  in  by  dogs*  on  a  large 
scale,  and  not  in  the  pockets  of  private  persons.     The  branches 
of  industry,  which  they  are  designed  to  protect,  are  altogether  of 
secondary  importance,  and  cannot  be  weighed  in  the  balance 
against  public  decency. 


NOTE  21  —  page  11. 

Construction  and  Cost  of  Steamboats  in  the  West. 

The  western  steamboats  are  on  the  high  pressure  principle, 
with  a  force  of  six  or  eight  atmospheres.  The  boilers  are  on 
deck,  in  the  bow  of  the  boat ;  the  cylinder  is  horizontal ;  there 
are  two  wheels,  one  on  each  side.  Formerly,  a  single  stern 
wheel  was  generally  used.  Only  one  engine  is  used  to  a  boat. 
The  pistons  are  not  of  metal,  an  arrangement  which  necessarily 
involves  a  great  loss  of  power,  but  which  renders  repairs  more 

*  On  the  northern  frontier  there  are  from  500,000  to  600,000  dogs  which  enter 
annually  ;  not  more  than  6,000  or  7 ,000  are  seized- 


NOTES.  461 

easy,  an  important  consideration  with  inexperienced  engineers. 
The  engines  are  of  very  simple  construction  and  cost  little  ; 
those  for  the  largest  boats  cost  from  10,000  to  14,000  dollars; 
the  engines  of  the  French  government  packets  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean cost  nearly  60,000  dollars.  The  cylinders  of  the  most 
powerful  engines  in  the  western  boats  are  of  30  inches  diame- 
ter, and  seven  feet  stroke.  These  boats  consume  enormous 
quantities  of  wood  ;  the  larger  ones  burning  from  one  and  a  half 
to  one  and  three  quarters  cords  an  hour  ;  the  rate  of  speed  rarely 
exceeds  ten  miles  an  hour  even  down  stream. 

In  the  east  a  good  steamer  from  175  to  200  feet  in  length 
with  copper  boilers,  which  are  necessary  to  resist  the  action  of 
salt  water,  costs  from  70,000  to  80,000  dollars,  including  the 
furniture.  The  carpenter's  work  of  the  hull  costs  about  thirty 
dollars  a  ton,  exclusive  of  the  iron.  The  engine,  when  there  is 
but  one,  costs  from  12,000  to  15,000  dollars,  exclusive  of  the 
boilers.  The  North  America  cost  100,000  dollars  ;  a  good  boat, 
well  taken  care  of,  lasts  about  twelve  or  fifteen  years  in  the  east. 
The  eastern  boats  are  very  fast  and  safe,  and  of  late  years, 
great  improvements  have  been  made  in  their  construction,  prin- 
cipally by  Mr  Stevens  of  New  York.  They  move  at  the  rate  of 
fifteen  miles  an  hour  in  still  water,  and  generally  carry  nothing 
but  passengers.  Their  usual  length  is  from  180  to  200  feet, 
with  a  breadth  of  twenty  four  or  twentysix,  without  including  the 
paddle-boxes  ;  their  usual  draught  of  water  about  four  or  five  feet 
in  the  rivers,  and  from  six  and  a  half  to  nine  feet  in  the  bays 
and  seas.  Their  engines  are  on  the  low  or  mean  pressure  prin- 
ciple ;  the  cylinder  is  vertical,  and  they  often  have  two  engines ; 
the  stroke  of  the  piston  has  been  carried  to  ten  or  eleven  feet ;  the 
diameter  of  the  cylinders,  in  some  of  the  boats,  is  five  feet  four 
inches.  They  consume  from  twentyfive  to  thirty  cords  of  wood 
an  hour. 

The  number  of  steamboats  in  the  United  States,  at  the  end  of 
1834,  was  386  of  an  aggregate  of  95,648  tons,  of  which  237, 
with  a  tonnage  of  64,347  tons,  were  on  the  western  waters. 
[In  1839  the  number  of  boats  was  about  800,  with  an  aggregate 
tonnage  of  157,473  tons  ;  of  these  about  300  were  on  the  west- 


462 


NOTES. 


ern  rivers  and  70  on  the  lakes. — TRANSL.]  There  were  in 
France,  in  1834,  82  steamboats,  with  a  total  tonnage  of  not  more 
than  15,000  tons,  beside  37  belonging  to  the  government.  The 
whole  number  of  steamers  in  England  is  about  480. 


NOTE  22  — page  268. 

Summary  Statements  of  the  Public  Works  in  the  United  States. 

The  six  tables  which  follow  present  a  recapitulation  of  the 
statements  given  in  Letter  XXL,  with  the  cost  per  league  in 
francs.  [Many  of  the  statements  in  the  Letter  are  slightly  varied 
from  the  original,  in  conformity  with  official  reports,  and  the 
cost  and  distances  have  there  been  reduced  to  English  measures 
and  Federal  money.  In  these  tables  the  author's  statements  are 
given  without  change  because  sufficient  materials  for  a  total  re- 
casting of  them  are  not  accessible  to  the  translator.  In  reduc- 
ing federal  money  to  francs,  M.  Chevalier  assumes  the  dollar  to 
be  equal  to  5.33  francs;  the  league  is  of  4,000  metres,  and  con- 
sequently equivalent  to  two  and  a  half  English  statute  miles.  — 
TRANSL.] 

I.    LINES  BETWEEN  THE  EAST  AND   WEST. 

Length.  Leagues.  Total  Cost.  Francs. 

Names.  Car 

1st  Line,  Erie  Canal, 

Branches, 
Lateral  Railroads, 

Albany  and  Schenectady, 

Schenectady  and  Utica, 

Rochester  and  Buffalo, 
2d  Line,  Pennsylvania 

Canal, 

Branches, 

Columbia  Railroad, 

Portage  „ 

Bald  Eagle  Canal, 
Union  „ 

3d  Line  Baltimore  and  Ohio 

Railroad, 
4th  Line,  Chesapeake  and 

Ohio  Canal,  74 1 

Georgetown  and  Alexan- 
dria Canal, 


1404 
101 


111 

1314 

10 
33 


ailroads 

,              Canals. 

1  65,000,000 

Railroad.. 

Co.tper 
League. 

262,600 

64 
314 

29 

4,000,000 
8,000,000 
3,000,000 

615,400 
254,000 
103,000 

33 

144 

1  95,000,000 

1,000,000 
13,870,000 

19,200,000 
8,550,000 

392,300 

581,800 
600,000 
100,000 
420,300 

34 

16,000,000 

470,600 

33,000,000 

442,800 

2,600,000 

866,700 

5th  Line,  Virginia  Canal, 

Railroad  section, 
Old  James  River  Canal, 
6th  Line,  Richelieu  Canal, 
Laprairie  Railroad. 


NOTES. 
100  25,000,000 


463 


12 
4| 


60 


250,000 

15,000,000    250,000 
5,300,000  441,600 

1,870,000  393,700 

800,000     123,100 


727^2141     242,640,000  74,550,000 


II.  LlNES  CONNECTING  THZ  VALLEYS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  AND 
ST.  LAWRENCE. 


Names.  C. 

Ohio  Canal, 

Miami  (1st  section,) 
"     (2d  section,) 

Wabash  and  Erie  Canal, 

Michigan  " 

Pittsburgh  and  Erie  " 

Beaver  and  Sandy     " 

Mahoning  " 

Mad  River  Railroad, 

Welland  Canal. 

Canals  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence, 

Louisville  and    Portland 
Canal, 

Totals 

459    614    147,790,000    10,500,000 


Length.  Leagues  Total  Cost.  Francs. 

Colt  per 

mala. 

Railroads.        Canali.                 Railroads. 

League. 

122 

22,720,000 

186,200 

264 

5,227,000 

197,200 

50$ 

11,000,000 

219,000 

84 

16,800,000 

200,000 

37J 

37,500,000 

1,000,000 

414 

5,000,000 

120,500 

36| 

7,250,000 

200,000 

36 

7,200,000 

200,000 

614                         10,500,000 

170,700 

Hi 

11,040,000 

982,300 

13 

20,000,000 

1,538,000 

1 

4,053,000 

5,400,000 

III.    LlNES    ALONG    THE    ATLANTIC. 


Names.  Ci 

Raritan  And  Delaware 
Canal, 

Delaware  and  Chesapeake 
Canal, 

Dismal  Swamp  Canal, 

Branch, 
2d  Line,  By  the  Cities. 

Boston  and  Providence 
Railroad, 

Providence  and  Stoning- 
ton  Railroad, 

Amboy  and  Camden 
Railroad, 

Newcastle  and  French- 
town  Railroad, 

Baltimore   and  Washing- 
ton Railroad, 

Winchester  Railroad, 

Federicksburg  and  Rich- 
mond Railroad, 

Petersburg  and  Roanoke 
Railroad, 


Length.  Leagues.   Total  Cost.  Francs. 


rials.    Ri 

lilroucls.         CanaU. 

Cost  per 
Railroads.             League. 

17 

12,000,000 

705,9'00 

54 

9 
24 

14,000,000 
1  3,733,000 

2,545,500 
324,600 

17 

8,000,000 

470,600 

21 

8,000,000 

381,000 

244 

12,250,000 

505,200 

64 

2,130.000 

327,700 

12 
13 

8,000,000 
2,600,000 

750,000 
200,000 

23| 

3,900,000 

164,200 

24 

3,470,000 

144,600 

64 

NOTES. 

Belfield  Branch  Railroad, 

6 

840,000    140,000 

Portsmouth  and  Roanoke 

Railroad, 

31 

4,000,000    129,000 

Charleston  and  Ham- 

burg Railroad, 
Georgia  Railroad. 

54| 
46 

6,400,000    116,900 
8,230,000    179,300 

Totals 

34  2794    29,733,000 

67,840,000 

IV.  LINKS    RADIATING    FROM    THE    LARGE 

TOWNS. 

Length.  Leagues.  Total 

Cost.  Francs. 

*      Cost  per 

Names.                                Cai 

iali.  -Railroad!          Canals. 

Railroad*                  League. 

Boston  and  Lowell  Rail- 

road, 

104 

8,000,000      780,000 

Boston  and  Worcester 

Railroad, 

17| 

6,670,000      375,800 

Middlesex  Canal 

12                 2,800,000 

233,000 

New  York  and  Paterson 

Railroad, 

6* 

1,100,000      176,000 

Harlaem  Railroad, 

2 

2,000,000    1,000,000 

Jersey  City  and  New 
Brunswick  Railroad, 

iti 

1,800,000      160,000 

Brooklyn  and  Jamaica 

Railroad, 

5 

1,600,000      320,000 

Philadelphia  and  Norris- 

town  Railroad, 

w 

2,500,000      400,000 

Westchester  Railroad, 

3* 

540,000      154,300 

Philadelphia  and  Trenton 
Railroad, 

10) 

2,133,000      203,100 

Baltimore  and  Susquehan- 

nah  Railroad, 

24 

7,100,000     295,800 

Santee  CanaJ, 

9                 3,470,000 

385,600 

New  Orleans  Canals, 

4                12,000,000 

3,000,000 

New  Orleans  and  Carrol- 

ton  Railroad, 

3i 

2,000,000     571,400 

New  Orleans  and  Lake 

Pontchartrain  Railroad, 

2 

2,300,000  1,150,000 

Schenectady  and  Saratoga 

Railroad, 

8i 

1,600,000      188,200 

Troy  and   Saratoga  Rail- 

road, 

9| 

1,800,000     184,600 

Totals 


25      120i  18,270,000       41,143,000 


V.    LlNES    CONNECTED    WITH    THE    COAL    MlNES. 

Length.  Leagues.   Total  Cost.  Frantf. 

ill.     Railroads.          Canali.  . 
54 

16,000,000 


Cost  per 
Railroads.  League. 

1,050,000     200,000 
372,100 


NamH.  C 

Chesterfield  Railroad, 
Schuylkill  Canal,  43 

Lehigb  17J  8,300,000  474,300 

Delaware       "  (see  Letters) 

Morris  "  48£  11,000,000  226,800 

Carbondale  and  Hones- 
dale  Railroad,  64  1,600,000    246,200 


NOTES. 


465 


Hudson  and  Delaware 

Canal,  43 

Pottsville  and  Sunbury 

Railroad,  J7f 

Philadelphia  and  Reading 

Railroad,  223 

Various  works,  (>0 

Totals 


12,000,000 


293,300 
6,000,000    338,000 

8,000,000    351,600 
6,000,000      90,900 


152     1184  47,900,000        22,650,000 


VI.  DIFFERENT  LINES. 

Length.  Leagues.    Total  Cost.  Francs. 

Nnmw.  Cai 

Cumberland  Canal  (Me.) 

Farmington  and  Black- 
stone  Canals,  Mass.  &c.  67 

Conestoga  Navigation, 

Codorus  „ 

Muscle-Shoals  Canal, 

Savannah  and  Ogechee 
Canal, 

Improvement  of  the  Hud- 
son, 

Quincy  Railroad, 

Ithaca  and  Owego  Rail- 
road, 

Lexington  and  Louisville 
Railroad, 

Tuscumbia  and  Decatur 
Railroad, 

Rochester  Canal, 


Buffalo  and  Blackrock 
Canal, 

Totals 


nail. 

Railroads. 

OfcuU. 

Railroads. 

Colt  per 
League. 

67 
U 
4i 
14 

I 

10,400,000 
1  ,000,000 
7,000,000 

155,000 
95,700 
500,000 

6* 

850,000 

130,800 

11| 

H 

5,000,000 

180,000 

425,500 
144,000 

11$ 

2,700,000 

230,800 

36 

6,000,000 

166,700 

18 

H 

3,000,000 
160,000 

200,000 
128,000 

50,000        40,000 


110| 


24,250,000     12,690,000 


VII.  SUMMARY  OF  THE  ABOVE  TABLES. 


Length. 

Leagues. 

Cost. 

Francs. 

ie        > 

Canali. 

Railroad.. 

Canal.. 

Rallroadi. 

I. 
11. 
III. 

IV. 
V. 

Total. 
Deduct 

7274 
459 
34 
25 

152 

214| 
61} 

1184 

242,640,000 
147,790,000 
29,733,000 
18,270,000 
47,900,000 

74,550,000 
10,500,000 
67,840,000 
41,143.000 
22,650,000 

1,3974 
144 

7944 
105 

486,333,000 
72,500,000 

216,683,000 
21,750,000 

VI. 

Totals. 

1,2534 
llOi 

6894 

413,833,000 
24,250,000 

194,933,000 
12690,000 

1364 

7581 

< 

438,083,000 

207,623,000 

2,1221 

645,706,000. 

59 

466 

If  to  these  are  added  some  unimportant  works,  about  which 
I  have  not  been  able  to  obtain 'exact  statements,  the  total  length 
of  the  railroads  and  canals  may  be  estimated  at  about  2,150 
leagues,  and  the  cost  at  660  million  francs.  If  we  take  into 
account  a  number  of  important  works,  which  have  been  underta- 
ken in  the  last  part  of  1835  and  the  beginning  of  1836,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  add  900  leagues  and  300  million  francs  to  the 
above  totals,  making  an  aggregate  of  3,050  leagues  (7,625 
miles)  and  960  million  francs  (180  million  dollars).  I  do  not 
include  the  Nashville  and  New  Orleans  and  the  Charleston  and 
Cincinnati  railroads,  which,  however,  will  probably  be  executed 
before  long,  and  with  their  branches  will  make  an  addition  of 
more  than  500  leagues.  The  Americans  have  already  sur- 
passed in  the  extent  of  their  works,  and  the  rapidity  of  execution, 
the  most  active  and  wealthy  European  nations.  Almost  all  the 
works  above  enumerated  have  been  executed  in  fifteen  years. 

The  following  table  gives  a  summary  view  of  similar  works 
in  Europe  : 

Countries.  Canals.  Railroads. 

England  1,100  leagues.  313  leagues. 

France  998  50 

Belgium  115  74 

Other  States  400  50 


Totals  2,613  487 


General  Total  of  Eurbpe  3,100 

"  United  States    3,050 


NOTE  23  — page  281. 

Geological  Surveys. 

The  legislatures  of  several  States  have  lately  shown  a  laudable 
zeal  for  geological  examinations  of  the  soil.  Maryland  has  a 
State  geologist  (Mr  Duchatel)  who  is  engaged  in  preparing  a 
a  geological  map  of  the  State,  particularly  with  reference  to 
economical  purposes.  Dr  Duchatel  has  already  made  some 


NOTES.  467 

^f 

important  discoveries  in  agricultural  geology,  especially  in  re- 
spect to  the  use  of  marl.  Tennessee  has  also  its  geologist,  Dr 
Troost.  Massachusetts  has  a  geological  map  prepared  by  Pro- 
fessor Hitchcock.  Congress  has  caused  some  examinations  to 
fye  made  on  the  upper  Mississippi.  Dr  Jackson  has  been  several 
years  employed  in  making  geological  surveys  in  Maine,  and  is 
at  present  occupied  in  Rhode  Island  ;  he  has  also  been  appointed 
by  New  Hampshire  to  explore  the  geology  of  her  mountains  and 
valleys.  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Virginia,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Connecticut,  Kentucky,  Michigan  and  Georgia,  have 
also  engaged  in  the  same  enterprise,  and  partial  examinations 
have  been  made  in  North  Carolina.  New  York  has  in  addition 
to  a  corps  of  four  geologists,  Messrs  Vanuxem,  Mather,  Em- 
mons  and  Conrad,  a  chemist  (Dr  Beck,)  a  botanist  (Mr  Torrey,) 
and  a  zoologist,  (Dr  DeKay.)  It  is  principally  to  the  efforts  of 
the  late  Secretary  of  the  State,  General  Dix,  that  New  York  is 
indebted  for  this  great  undertaking.  Massachusetts  has  also 
organised  a  board  of  naturalists,  to  report  upon  the  different 
branches  of  botany  and  zoology.  In  many  of  the  States,  a  topo- 
graphical survey  more  or  less  minute,  has  been  connected  with 
the  geological  explorations.  Massachusetts  has  been  trigonome- 
trically  surveyed. 


WEEKS,  JORDAN  &  CO., 

•v 
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